Manuscript on parchment (greatly trimmed) of a fragment of a Book of Hours. The twenty-six folios are the only fragment known to remain of the Book of Hours of Blanche of Burgundy (d. 1348), Countess of Savoy and granddaughter of Saint Louis of France, which was executed in Paris in the atelier of Jean Pucelle. The manuscript received additional texts and miniatures in the third quarter of the fourteenth century, when it was owned by Charles V, King of France, 1364-80.
Description:
In Latin., Script: Written in gothic bookhand; ff. 1r, 1v, 4r, and 4v added in the third quarter of the fourteenth century by Jean L'Avenant., Contains fifty of the original two hundred and fifty-five miniatures, the majority executed between Pucelle's death in 1334 and Blanche's death in 1348, the remainder between ca. 1370 and 1378, the terminus ante quem being the death of Charles's wife, Jeanne de Bourbon, represented on one of the destroyed leaves. All of the miniatures are in tricolor quatrefoils, the first, earlier set against pink or blue grounds with white filigree, gold frames and gold leaves on hair-line stems, the later miniatures with the grounds in pink or blue imitation relief., Each folio with a 3/4 bar border, detached from initial, pink, blue and gold with ivy terminals, or a single bar with ivy attached to initial, in inner margin; some with grotesque terminals, and birds and hunters in the margins and bas-de-page. 2-line initials, with heads, ivy, the arms of Savoy (ff. 2r, 14r, 18v, etc.) or the arms of Burgundy (f. 3v); blue or pink with white highlights on gold grounds. 1-line initials, blue or gold with red or black penwork. Line endings, red, blue and gold, on ff. 1 and 4 only. Rubrics throughout., and Binding: Eighteenth century. Red-brown sheepskin heavily gold-tooled with floral borders and corner fans, the center filled in with a circle made up of fan tools.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Pucelle, Jean, fl. 1320. and Catholic Church
Subject (Topic):
Books of hours, Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, and Manuscripts, Medieval