Manuscript book of hours for the use of Rouen, written and illuminated in Rouen, France sometime during the 15th century. Includes the typical common elements of a book of hours: church year calendar in French; readings from the Gospels; Hours of the Virgin, a set of eight devotional texts in Latin, one to be recited at each of the eight canonical hours of the day; penitential psalms, litany of saints, prayers for the dead, and prayers to the Virgin. Script: Latin text in gothic hand in black, with instructions in red ink, 15 lines per page; months of the calendar illuminated in gold, with saints' days written in red or blue ink. Illustrations: includes 11 large miniatures within arched frames, of scenes from the life of Christ (Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, Pietà), as well as portraits of the four Evangelists, King David with his harp, and St. Michael overcoming the devil; donor portrait on verso of leaf 53; all miniatures vividly colored and illuminated in red, blue, green, rose, black, and white; enclosed by richly painted and illuminated borders of arabesques, leafy branches, flowers and strawberry vines; illuminated floral borders along text margins; large and small illuminated rose and blue capitals. Binding: bound in blind-stamped calf over boards by Cambridge stationer and bookbinder Nicholas Spierinck, with date of 1520 supplied by Ferrari; upper and lower boards decorated with small blind-tooled square stamps containing figures of beasts and birds, and the device of binder with his initials "N" and "S," arranged in intersecting horizontal and vertical rows; vellum endpapers; all edges gilt. In modern beige cloth and brown leather clamshell box having gold-stamped spine title "Book of Hours." Provenance: From the library of Viscount Lee of Fareham, White Lodge, Richmond Park. A gift to Dr. Elmer Belt from Evelyn Cushman, 1954. Dr. Belt's illustrated bookplate on recto of front endleaf, with caption "From the House of Belt."In Latin and French.
Written in Spain in the middle of the thirteenth century. In the possession of a Dominican convent or friar before the end of the century; front pastedown top, half cropped, “. . . -ia ordinis predicatorum.” In England before the fourteenth century; English hands on ff. 1r-v, 387r-v, front pastedown. On f. 386 lower margin, erased note of accounts in fourteenth-century anglicana, “... sol[idos] . . . sol[idos] . . . Ego frater . . . sororem . . . sorores. ...” On f. 1v top, an erased note. Paper label “11” on the spine. Belonged to Isaac Foot; his bookplate, f. 1v. Came to UCLA with the Foot Collection in 1960.
Parchment, 1 leaf, slightly cropped at the inner margin. 24 long lines (text or music); ruled in ink. Heavy German gothic bookhand in liturgical style; brown ink. 2-line inititals in red on faded green flourishes; initials in the text in red; rubric in red miniscule; the first two lines of text of each hymn have German gothic notes on staves of 4 lines, 3 in red and 1 brown (the line of F, which is marked; C also is marked); on the other lines of text notes without staves.
Parchment, 1 leaf. 30 long lines; single bounding lines; hard point ruling. Ordinary minuscule of liturgical style, showing minims often ending in a serif; brown ink. 1 and 2-line plain capital initials in red; initials in the text red or slashed with red; rubrics in mixed majuscule in red; neumes of St. Gall type.
Used as a pastedown in binding; the recto was pasted. While the leaf was a pastedown, a gothic cursive hand, using grayish ink, entered a text in German between the lines, on the verso, 15th century.
Parchment, lower half of 1 leaf. 9 long lines survive; drypoint ruling barely discernible. Late Caroline minuscule script: "d" appears in two forms; both ampersand and the tironian note 7 for "et" are found; ascenders and descenders often end in a serif; brown ink. 8-line initial in red pen-and-ink vine stem pattern; rubric in red minuscule; neumes of St. Gall type.
Parchment, 1 leaf. 2 columns of 32 lines; ruled in ink. Calligraphic gothic bookhand in liturgical style (littera textualis formata); dark brown ink. 2-line initials alternately red and blue on penwork of the opposite color; initials in the text slashed with red; initials in the lines of text with music at times with elaborate flourishes in brown; on the outer margin of the verso "LVII" in red belongs to a contemporary foliation; music on staves of 4 brown lines; F and C are marked; German gothic notes. A contemporary correction of the text by a different hand in lighter ink on the lower margin of the recto.
Parchment, upper portion of 1 leaf. 4 lines of text and 4 1/2 staves survive; text not ruled. Gothic bookhand in liturgical style (littera textualis formata); blackish ink. Initials plain red or touched with red; German gothic notation on staves of 4 lines, the line of F in red, that of C in green.
Antiphonal. Parchment, 1 leaf cropped at margins. 12 lines of text with music; ruling not discernible. Liturgical gothic bookhand (littera textualis formata); dark brown ink. Primary initials alternately red and blue; initials in the text are elaborate brown majuscule slashed with red; music in square notation on staves of 4 red lines. A gothic cursive hand (s. XV) entered several notes on the recto, upside down, when leaf was a pastedown, including "Averrois commentator cum titulos fidei voluit probare rationibus nec potuit quare apostata in fede factus est"; "Sanctus Vincentius ordinis predicatorum habuit illum donum gratie, quod loquebatur suo sermone intelligibatur ab omnibus hominibus diversarum nationum." Used as a pastedown in binding: the verso is badly rubbed.
Parchment, 1 leaf. 21 long lines; ruled in lead. German gothic bookhand in liturgical style (littera textualis formata); brown ink. 2-line initials and initials in the text in red; rubrics in red minuscule; German gothic notation on staves of 4 lines, the line of F red and that of C pale green.
Used for binding, rubbed in the middle portion. Title on the verso (s. XVII), on what was the spine of the book bound with this leaf: De iure emphiteutico Tractatus Aurilii Corbuli (i.e., Aurelio Corboli, De iure emphyteutico tractus novus et utilissimus, of which the second and most widespread edition was printed in Colgne, 1589).
Antiphonal. Parchment, 1 leaf cropped at the inner margin. 14 lines of text with music; text unruled. Spikey German gothic bookhand in liturgical style (littera textualis formata); black ink. Initials of verse alternately plain red, and blue with red flourishes; initials in the text are elaborated brown majuscule touched with red; rubrics in red minuscule; German gothic neumes on staves of 4 red lines, F and C are marked. Used as a pastedown in binding: the verso is almost completely rubbed.
Written in northern Italy in the last quarter of the thirteenth century. The opening words of the sermon on f. 183 — “Sicut dixi vobis hec mane” (As I said to you this morning …) — imply a community; observances for Saint Clare and Saint Antony of Padua, and the translation of Saint Francis with its indication that other feasts of Francis were observed (f. 285v), suggest a Franciscan origin. Purchased from Bernard Rosenthal, San Francisco in November 1985 by Richard and Mary Rouse. Given to UCLA in 2005.
Written by Alberico Spinola, a Camaldolese monk and a citizen of Genoa, in 1443, and illuminated by Hugo of Alexandria, noted in the Dictionnaire des Colophons (from the Quaritch catalog cited below). On f. 1 in ink: “Ex libris Dominici Merli Civis Lucensis 1787.” Listed in Bernard Quaritch, A Catalogue of Illuminated and other Manuscripts (London 1931) no. 74; at that time the manuscript was lacking only 2 leaves (first leaf of q. 3 and of q. 16) and contained: “f. 1, Calendar; f. 21, Officium B.M.V. (lacking 1st leaf); f. 141b, Missa B.V.M.; f. 147, Septum Psalmi Penitentiales cum Litania; f. 181, Officium Mortuorum; f. 257, Officium S. Crucis; f. 267, Officium S. Spiritus; f. 290, Memoriae Sanctorum”; at that time it was decorated with 14 illuminated and 3 historiated initials, and with three-quarter borders of “floreated scrolls.” Acquired, still whole except for the two missing leaves, by Nicolas Pavlov, Dobbs Ferry, NY, from Reiss & Auvermann at Glashuetten im Taunus, West Germany (Catalog, lot #15, with plates) in October 1988. Dismembered by Pavlov and portions sold to other dealers. A part, probably the Office of the Dead, was sold to the bookdealer Bruce Guenter of South Egermont, MA. Rouse MS 40 was acquired in its present state from Pavlov in March 1990 by Richard and Mary Rouse. Given to UCLA in 2005.