Hours, Amiens c.1440-1450 : CHD: Dismembered Manuscripts 2002-2005

Dismembered Manuscripts
Book of Hours. Amiens c.1440-1450
Ex Sotheby's 22 June 1999 lot 92


Calendar leaf for July (f.7 recto) For transcript and details see: Amiens Calendars Ex Lot 92, Sotheby's Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, London, 22nd. June 1999	Calendar leaf for July (f.7 verso) Leaf size 156 x 114mm, written space 98 x 62mm Private Collection in U.K.

Book of Hours, Use of Amiens (?)*, Latin and French
Vellum 116 ff. 157 x 113 mm. 11 lines (100 x 62 mm) textura.
Lacking 13 leaves with all the principal openings in this section. The first half of a broken-up Book of Hours where the last part with the Office of the Dead and various prayers in Latin and French is to be found elsewhere.
Collation of this part as it probably originally was: i⁸, ii^8-1, iii-xv⁸, xvi⁶, xvii⁴ ()
Provenance:
Worn 16th century binding, faintly stamped with gilt: "F.D.M. AUMONNIER DE LA ROYNE MERE DU ROY". Among several 16th-17th-cent. scribbles in the margins are twice the name 'Pierre Mignot' (f.15 and f.33). Ex Sotheby's London, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, Tuesday 22 June 1999 Lot 92
Purchased by Griffon Medieval Manuscripts, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, who split up the book and sold it as individual leaves.

*Sotheby's catalogue has a curious information about the use:
"the Office of the Virgin is use of Amiens with the single variant of the capitulum 'Virgo verbo' instead of 'Hec est virgo' at Prime."
Provided that the incipits at None were the same as in Amiens, does this "variant" more likely indicate that it could be Use of Laon (!)
This kind of documentation is not satisfactory, and must be revised. All leaves with antiphons, chapters (with responses) and collects should be reexamined with care when they surface on the market.