Illuminated prayerbook, in Flemish.

12mo, 15 x 10,3 cm: [110-5 blank] ff., vellum, text in a black cursive hand on 18 lines, writing area 11 x 6,5 cm (2 lvs of vellum cut at the beginning, a few lvs sl. cropped).

18th-c. red morocco, gilt fillets on boards, gilt-orn. spine with raised bands, gilt edges.

Content: a variety of prayers, all in Flemish, prayers for each day of the week, on the Passion of the Lord, to the Holy Trinity, to St Augustine and Hieronymus, to Jesus, the Virgin and St Agnes, the prayer of Jehan Guldemont, contemplation and meditation on the "Pater Noster" and "Ave Maria", as preparation to the H. Mass and to the H. Communion...
Illumination: 5 archtopped miniatures (10 x 6,8 cm) with full borders depicting the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, the Marriage of Mary and Joseph, the Annunciation to the Virgin, the Visitation and the Nativity; all in splendid colours, heightened with gold.
Decoration: 5 full gold borders decorated with flowers and strawberries, insects and peacocks, and a couple of men, one naked. Numerous decorative initials in gold on blue or red background, one large of 7 lines on pink background.
Localisation and dating: as the handwriting is identical to the one that can be found in the prayerbook of Jacob Ruebens and his wife by Hieronymus vander Straete, a Carthusian monk of the monastery Genadedal in Bruges (†1554), which is dated 1547, we must conclude that the origin of our manuscript is to be situated around 1545/1550 in Bruges. The decoration of the borders is in the Ghent-Bruges tradition. The miniatures however, from an unidentified hand, do show a mannerist style somewhat in the way of the printed "Hortuus Animae" of the same epoch. And the miniature of the Nativity reflects the same atmosphere as the one of the Hours of King Ferdinand I (1503-1564) of c. 1530.
Ref. Katharina Smeyers, in Maurits Smeyers & Jan Van der Stock (ed.), Flemish illuminated manuscripts, 1475-1550, 1996, pp. 208-210. - Maurits Smeyers, Vlaamse miniaturen van de 8ste tot het midden van de 16de eeuw, 1998, p. 465, ill. [66], and p. 470, ill. [77].
Prov. Gift from [Joseph] van Huerne [de Pyenbeke] (nobleman and collector, Bruges 1752-1844) to Joseph de Pelichy, 1830 (ms. mention on endleaf). - Van Huerne (bookpl.).