Book of hours: Canon Grandel's Prayer Book

Title

Description

Book of hours, decorated initials, prayer book, Tournai use
Contains hundreds of decorated initials, with a pre-French Revolution provenance at the Capuchin friary in Lille, a named owner, Canon Grandel, in a local eighteenth-century binding probably dateable to 1734.

Almost certainly produced in Lille, French Flanders (under Spanish rule from 1477, or (less likely) in south Flanders, possible Bruges ... Written for male use, according to the emasculine forms of the Obsecro te and O intemerata"-- frp,
bookdealer's description in catalogue.

Contents
1. Fols. 1r-6v Hours of the Holy Cross
2. Fols. 7r-12v Hours of the Holy Spirit
3. Fols. 13r-62r Hours of the BVM (Fol. 13r-28v Matins ; Fol. 14v-25r Instructions for recitation with rubrics in French ; Fols. 29r-37v Lauds ; Fols. 38r-42r Prime, fol. 42v blank ; Fols. 43r-45v Terce ; Fols. 46r-48v Sext ; Fols. 49r-51v None ; Fols.52r-57v Vespers, fol.57v blank ; Fols. 58r-62r Compline, fol. 62v blank)
4. Fols. 63r-68r Mass of the BVM
5. Fols. 68r-72v Gospel lessons (all)
6. Fols. 72v-75v Obsecro te
7. Fols. 75v-78r O intemerata
8 Fols. 78r-81v Commemorations of the saints including some metrical suffrages
9. Fols. 82r-92r Seven Penitential Psalms
10. Fols. 92r-102r Litany, intersessions, psalms and prayers, fol. 102v blank (very full litany includes local saints suech as St. Bavo (Ghent), Gaugerica, and Guislenus, the last exclusive to Tournai)
11. Fols. 103r-136v Office of the Dead (ends defective with the canticle of Ezechias)

Last leaf (leaf 136, fol.136r-v partially wanting.
"An extensive manuscript from and identifiable center of production, ... having hundreds of decorated initials, with a pre-French Revolution provenance at the Capuchin friary in Lille, a named owner, Canon Grandel, in a local eighteenth-century binding probably dateable to 1734. ... Almost certainly produced in Lille, French Flanders (under Spanish rule from 1477, or (less likely) in south Flanders, possible Bruges ... Written for male use, according to themasculine forms of the Obsecro te and O intemerata"-- frp, bookdealer's description in catalogue.
"Provenance: from the Capuchin Library at Lille. Under a UV lamp, an erased inscription on fol. 1r reads 'des Capucins de Lille'; a second ownership inscription appears on the last flyleaf, also erased but visible under UV exposure: à la bibliothèque des Capucins de Lille.' The number 358on the front pastedown is arguably the call number for this codex ... The back flyleaf also preserves the penciled annotation, 'Aurait appartenu au chanoine Grandel,' which provides the name 'Canon Grandel's Prayer Book."-- from bookdealer's description in catalogue.
"Condition: Apparently missing a kalendar of Tournai Use (12 folios) and single illuminations before fol. 1 and after fols. 6, 12, 62, 81 and 102. Given the early binding and the current collation, the illuminations were excised - probably deliberately - before the binding was put on. The program of illumination seems to have included miniatures only for the major sections in the manuscript. As currently preserved, however the text is virtually complete. I [i.e. bookdealer] note discontinuous text only after fols. 6, 81 , and 135. The missing passages are likely no more than a single folio."-- from bookdealer's description in catalogue.
"Binding: ... probably rebound in 1734 as the repeated date suggests. The spine title 'Breviar Capucin' is upside down."-- from bookdealer's description in catalogue.
Contents taken from bookdealer's description in catalogue.

Donated by Elspeth & Duncan Johnson

Date

[1500]

Format

PDF

53.5 MB

Date Digitized

2013

Language

Latin

Catalogue Record

View catalogue record

Media