Book of Hours, in Latin, undetermined use.

4to (200 x 150 mm): [153] ff., vellum, Latin text in a Gothic pen, brown ink on 15 lines (writing area 150 x 70 mm, last lf. blank). Very fine inside condition.

C. 1800 red Russian leather, boards with gilt rollstamp, gilt flat spine with 6 compartiments and titled "Heures manuscrit [sic]", gilt edges (small defects, traces of wraping cord on lower board).

Very attractive manuscript with abundant decoration in brilliant colours and burnished gold, but missing its miniature paintings.
Content: (1) Calendar in French with saints venerated in Hainaut (particularly Mons: SS. Waudru (4x), Vincent, Bertin); (2) The Little Hours of the Virgin; (3) Penitential psalms and litany; (4) Office of the Dead; (5) Various prayers (some in French: "Pour pere et mere trespasses", "Doulce Dame de miséricorde" and "Doulx Dieu doulx pere sainte trinité").
Decoration: every text leaf with vertical outer border (105 x 24 mm) and 12 pages with three-quarter borders (160 x 120 mm), all richly decorated with tendrils in pen, acanthus, flowers and berries in red and blue, green leaves and dots in burnished gold. Each of those 12 important leaves with a large 5-line initial in different colours and burnished gold, and 2 birds in the borders. Wide-margined and very neat copy.