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The Carondelet Breviary, for Franciscan use, in Latin.
Manuscript on vellum, illuminated by Jacquemart Pilavaine.
Hainaut, Mons, c. 1460.
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187 x 128 mm. 692 leaves (last pasted down), plus vellum flyleaf, lacking single leaves after fol. 207 and 275, else complete: I-XVII12, XVIII12-1, XIX-XXIII12, XXIV8-1, XXV-XXX12, XXXI8, XXXII8-2 [vii-viii cancelled], XXXIII-LIX12, with traces of horizontal catchwords, old pen foliation 1-13, modern pencil foliation repeats 281. – Written space 124 x 80 mm, ruled in purple ink for two columns of 32 lines, written in dark brown ink in two sizes in a Textualis Formata. Headings and rubrics in red, one-line versals throughout in liquid gold on grounds of contrasting deep blue and brick-red, over 2500 decorated initials throughout, up to 6 lines high, in leafy design, grey heightened and outlined in black on brown grounds, tracery with foliated extensions of deep blue, brick-red, black, green, and gold occasionally decorated with flowers or inhabited by little grotesques, monsters, birds, shooting archers, owls, apes, lions, peasants. 5 initials including the Carondelet arms, in same style; 15 historiated initials, up to 7 lines, in the same style with full-length illuminated bar borders of liquid gold, brick-red and deep blue with sprouting leaves extending into the upper and lower margins often including the Carondelet arms; 10 small miniatures, up to nine lines high with full-length illuminated bar borders in same style; 13 very large miniatures in full borders of multicoloured flowers and leaves in the same style as the decorated initials inhabited by lions, archers, soldiers in armour, knights on horseback, peasants killing dragons, the Carondelet arms, etc. – Some scribal additions in margins, some creasing and thumbing, some discoloration of vellum and pigments on fol. 1, damp-staining and consequent ink pigments discoloration on fol. 686-91, tears in the vellum repaired on fol. 322 and 655, otherwise in very sound condition with wide white margins. – Contemporary panel-stamped binding of slightly bevelled wooden boards sewn on 5 bands, covered with dark brown tanned leather, ruled with triple lines into frames, each cover stamped with two impressions of an oblong panel (78 x 50 mm) with borders of foliage and compartments with the emblems of the Evangelists in vinestems and the central legend in gothic script “ihesus nasarenus rex iudeorum”, between each panel a row of stamps of griffins and wyverns, borders of repeated impressions of a small square stamp of a fly, old (but perhaps not contemporary) clasps and catches. Vellum pastedown and flyleaf at front from a piece of a late medieval antiphonary, edges gilt and gauffered to a saltire design. Rebacked, in a quarter brown morocco padded and fitted case, title gilt.
Provenance:
1. Probably written and illuminated for Jean de Carondelet (1428-1502), of Dôle, counsellor to Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy, ambassador to the courts of France, England and Austria, president of the parliament of Burgundy (1473), grand chancellor of Burgundy and Flanders (1480) and guardian of Philip the Fair during his minority (1490-95). The arms of Carondelet occur 21 times in the manuscript, azure, a bend Or between 5 bezants of the second. The same arms occur in another Franciscan Breviary, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Ms.theol.lat.fol. 285 (G. Achten, Das Christliche Gebetbuch im Mittelalter, exhib. cat. 1987, p. 114-45, no. 77), and in a Missal in the treasury of Tournai cathedral (L. Fourez, ‘Le Missel de Jean II de Carondelet’, Scriptorium, XXIII 1969, p. 272-75). The present Breviary must have been made when Carondelet was involved as ambassador to Charles the Bold to the rebellious town of Liège and during his reforms of the Franche-Comté in the 1460s. Although a distinguished statesman, Jean de Carondelet was a man of learning and piety. In his last years he retired to Dôle where he founded a choir school.
The manuscript is of Franciscan Use. It was perhaps made for presentation by Carondelet to the Franciscan convent of Tournai, about 25 miles west of Mons, for the Calendar includes the dedication of the house in red, as a double feast (31 August, fol. 279v).
2. J. R. Ritman, Amsterdam, BPH MS 7102 (acquired from Tenschert).
3. Private collection, USA.
Text:
fol. 1-275: the Temporal, use of Rome (“secundum consuetudinem romane ecclesie”, used by the Franciscans), for the whole year from the First Saturday in Advent – fol. 276-281v: a graded Calendar, in Latin, of Franciscan use, including in red St Francis (with octave and his Stigmata and Translation, and the dedication of Santa Maria della Porziuncola, which he built), St Anthony of Padua (with octave and Translation), etc. – fol. 282v-367v: a Ferial Psalter, from Psalm 1 – fol. 368-634: the Sanctoral, for the whole year, from St Saturninus (29 November), followed by St Andrew (30 November), etc., including offices for the translation of St Francis (fol. 438), St Anthony of Padua (fol. 444v-452), St Louis of Toulouse (fol. 535-540), St Francis (fol. 569-595v), etc., ending with St Katherine (25 November) – fol. 635-670v: the Common of Saints – fol. 670v: the Dedication of a Church – fol. 675v: the Mass for the Virgin – fol. 681v: the Mass of the Dead – fol. 685v: the Commendation of Souls with Litanies.
Illumination:
This is a manuscript of notable richness and invention, especially for a Franciscan text (the Order was noted for its modesty in all matters). The illumination is attributable to the artist Jacquemart Pilavaine , originally from Péronne in the Vermandois, who was the leading manuscript painter in Mons (fl. c. 1450-85). His patrons included Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, for whom he illuminated Brussels, B.R. ms. 9043. He actually signed Brussels, B.R. ms. 6069 as “escripvain et enlumineur”, a manuscript copied for Charles de Croy, comte de Chimay (d’Ancona/Aeschlimann, 1949, pl. CIX; Dogaer, 1987, p. 61-62; Pilavaine’s work is currently being studied by Anke Esch and Mr. Dominique Vanwijnsberghe).
The iconography of the present book is richly inventive and filled with unusual detail. The opening miniature, for example, shows an extremely rare subject, St Paul attempting to rouse the Romans from sleep, based on the text of Romans 13:11, ‘... knowing the time ... it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed’. The whole imperial court is asleep, like the enchanted fairy tale castle of Sleeping Beauty. On the wall is a clock. This is a symbol both of the time and of the hours of the day, for this is a Breviary or book of canonical hours. Pilavaine’s touches of whimsy and imagination occur even on the text pages. “As an illuminator, he is notorious for his overloaded marginal decorations with multi-coloured acanthus, golden leaves, flowers, strawberries and birds” (Dogaer, p. 61). Hundreds of initials include little people, hunters, archers, wildmen, jesters, birds, hounds, apes, lions, deer, other animals, dragons, etc.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
1. fol. 1: St Paul and the Emperor of Rome. – 2. fol. 25v: The Nativity. – 3. fol. 54: The Adoration of the Magi. – 4. fol. 160v: The Resurrection. – 5. fol. 189v: The Ascension. – 6. fol. 200: Pentecost. – 7. fol. 216: St Anthony of Padua and the Mule. – 8. fol. 282v: Saul and David. – 9. fol. 294v: David with God. – 10. fol. 302: The Return of David to Jerusalem. – 11. fol. 310: David and the fools. – 12. fol. 317v: David with God the Father. – 13. fol. 327v: The Elevation of the Host. – 14. fol. 336: God the Father with musicians. – 15. fol. 346v: The Ascension of Christ. – 16. fol. 376v: The Immaculate Conception. – 17. fol. 402: The Circumcision. – 18. fol. 414v: The Annunciation. – 19. fol. 487v: The Virgin and Child with St Anne. – 20. fol. 525: The Death and Assumption of the Virgin. – 21. fol. 535v: St Louis of Toulouse. – 22. fol. 546: The Birth of the Virgin. – 23. fol. 569: St Francis and Innocent III.
The subjects of the historiated initials are:
1. fol. 48: St Leo. – 2. fol. 68v: St Peter. – 3. fol. 80: St Paul and St Timothy. – 4. fol. 83v: St Paul. – 5. fol. 212: Ephraim with his two wives. – 6. fol. 225v: David with the Amalekite bringing him Saul's crown. – 7. fol. 228v: Elijah calling the fire from Heaven. – 8. fol. 282v: David and Goliath. – 9. fol. 302v: David pointing to his mouth in front of his soldiers. – 10. fol. 368: All Saints. – 11. fol. 372v: St Nicholas. – 12. fol. 590v: the body of St Francis. – 13. fol. 593: the Translation of St Francis. – 14. fol. 603v: Christ and All Saints. – 15. fol. 635: the Apostles.
Literature:
Anke Esch, ‘La production de livres de Jacquemart Pilavaine à Mons. Nouvelles perspectives’, in Als ich can. Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon, Jan van der Stock, Dominique Vanwijnsberghe et al., 2 Vols. (Corpus of illuminated manuscripts from the Low countries, Vol. 11/12). Leuven 2002, p. 641-68.
P. d’Ancona and E. Aeschlimann, Dictionnaire des Miniaturistes, 1949, pl. CIX.
G. Dogaer, Flemish Miniature Painting in the 15th and 16th Centuries, 1987, p. 61-62. |
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