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Detailed record for Additional 52539


ff. 1-6v
	Title		Leaves and bifolia from a Book of Hours, containing text for the end of Prime (f. 1); Terce (ff. 1-2); Sext (ff. 2-3v); None (ff. 4-4v); Vespers (ff. 4v-6v); and Compline (f. 6v) in the Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome

ff. 7-9v
	Title		Leaves from a Book of Hours, containing text for Matins (ff. 7-8); Lauds (f. 8v); None (f. 9); and Vespers (ff. 9-9v) in the Office of the Dead

ff. 10r-v
	Title		Leaf from a Book of Hours, containing text (partially erased) for Matins in the Long Hours of the Cross

ff. 11-11v
	Title		Leaf from a Book of Hours, containing part of the text of a Carthusian prayer cycle

ff. 12r-v
	Title		Leaf from a Book of Hours, containing part of the Mass prayers

Origin		Italy, N. (Bologna)
Date		c. 1390 - c. 1400
Language		Latin
Script		Gothic
Artists		Master of the Brussels Initials (active Bologna, Padua and Paris between the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries)
Decoration		4 large historiated initials in colours and gold, of the Annunciation to the Shepherds and Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Dispute with the Doctors, with extension into borders of acanthus-like foliage inhabited by drolleries, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs, strapwork and bezants with single hair-line embellishment (ff. 1, 2, 4v, 6v). 1 small initial with foliate infill in colours and gold (f. 4v). 21 small initials in gold with blue penwork decoration.
Dimensions in mm		235 x 170
Official foliation		Parchment leaves and bifolia.
Form		Bound parchment leaves and bifolia.
Binding		BM/BL in-house.
Provenance		The Acciuaiuoli family of Florence: probably their arms with a swan crest on Add. 69865, f. 5, previously ascribed to the Papafava of Padua (Medica, 1999). Thomas Hobart (d. 1728), doctor: perhaps bequeathed the book of Hours to Sir Roger Moystyn (b. 1673, d. 1739), 3rd baronet Mostyn. The Lords Mostyn of Mostyn Hall, Mostyn, Cheshire: the book of Hours was described in Fourth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1874), p. 350, no. 76; their sale, 13 July 1920, lot 62, bought by Goertz for £35. Mrs Constance Goetze (d. 1951), wife of Sigismund C.H. Goetze, RA (b. 1866, d. 1939): her sale, 1 December 1942, lot 344, bought by Eisemann. ff: 3-6v: Heinrich Eisemann, twentieth-century London book-dealer. Francis Wormald (b. 1904, d. 1972), palaeographer and art historian: the two conjoint bifolia, formerly Add. 45890, were presented by him to the British Museum in 1943. ff. 1, 2, 7-12: Arthur William Botham (d. 1963), of the Indian Civil Service. Mrs E. Botham, niece of the above: included as 'The Property of a Lady' in a sale at Sotheby's, 7 December 1964, lots 132-39, purchased by Sawyer for the British Museum for £1285: purchased by the British Museum with the aid of the Friends of the National Libraries.
Notes		Italian cuttings. The present leaves and bifolia originally formed part of a now dismembered Book of Hours. Currently 137 out of a recorded 145 leaves from the Hours have been located or identified. These are: British Library, Add. 52539, 69865, 79782, 79763, 82729, 88889; Los Angeles, UCLA Charles E. Young Library, Department of Special Collections, R. H. & M. A. Rouse MS 32; Sotheby's, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, London, 18 May 1996, lot 20 (now in a private collection, Japan); Sotheby's, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, London, 14 July 1981, lot 25 (Private Collection, Switzerland).
Select bibliography		'Illumination from the School of Niccolò da Bologna', British Museum Quarterly, 29 (1965), 84-9. British Museum Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1936-1945 (London: British Museum, 1970), p. 265. Pittura Bolognese del '300. Scritti di Francesco Arcangeli, ed. by Cesare Gnudi (Bologna: Grafis, 1978), pp. 178-79, fig. 71 [as Add. 32247, f. 1]. Massimo Medica, 'Per una storia della miniatura a Bologna tra tre e quattrocento: appunto e considerazioni', in Il Tramonto del Medievo a Bologna. Il Cantiere di San Petronio, ed. by R. D'Amico and R. Grandi (Bologna: Alfa, 1987), pp. 160-229 (pp. 167 and 169 figs., 172) [exhibition catalogue]. Fioritura tardogotica nelle Marche, ed. by Paolo Dal Poggetto (Milan: Electa, 1998), p. 148 [as Add. 32247, f. 1] [exhibition catalogue]. Iter Liturgicum Italicum, ed. by Giacomo Baroffio (Padua: CLEUP, 1999), p. 105. Masimo Medica, 'Nuove tracce per l'attività padovana del Maestro delle Iniziali di Bruxelles', in Parole Dipinte: La miniatura a Padoval dal Medieovo al Settecento, ed. by Giovanna Baldissin Molli, Giordana Mariani Canova and Federica Toniolo (Padua: Franco Cosimo Panini, 1999), pp. 473-74, figs. 6-7. Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1956-1965 (London: British Library, 2000), pp. 518-19. Massimo Medica, 'Maestro delle Iniziali di Bruxelles', in Dizionario Biografico dei Miniatori Italiani: Secoli IX-XVI, ed. by Milvia Bollati (Milan: Bonnard, 2004), pp. 565-67 (pp. 565-66). Scot McKendrick, 'Dismembered, but not destroyed: An Early Horae from Northern Italy now partly preserved in the British Library', in Quand la peinture était dans les livres: mélanges en l'honneur de François Avril, ed. by Mara Hofmann and Caroline Zöhl (Paris: Brepols; Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2007), pp. 192-202 (pp. 192, 196-99, 200 n. 6, 201 n. 24, figs. 2-4, 6). Peter Kidd, 'UCLA Rouse MS 32: The Provenance of a Dismembered Italian Illuminated Book of Hours Illuminated by the Master of the Brussels Initials', in Medieval Manuscripts, Their Makers and Users: A Special Issue of Viator in Honor of Richard and Mary Rouse (Brepols, 2011), pp. 279-91. Massimo Medica, 'Un Illustre Committente Fiorentino per Giovanni di Fra Silvestro: Donato Acciaiuoli', in Il codice miniato in Europa: libri per la chiesa, per la città, per la corte, ed. by Giordana Mariani Canova and Alessandra Perriccioli Saggese (Padua: Il Poligrafo, 2014), pp. 355-71.

Images

ff. 1-6v

Leaves and bifolia from a Book of Hours, containing text for the end of Prime (f. 1); Terce (ff. 1-2); Sext (ff. 2-3v); None (ff. 4-4v); Vespers (ff. 4v-6v); and Compline (f. 6v) in the Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome