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.