Horae. Use of Nantes.

12mo (10,5 x 7 cm): 111 ff., 16 ll., on vellum, in Latin, written in a brown and red Gothic hand, writting area (6 x 4 cm) (sl. soiled and spotted, f. [60] is presumely added and written in another hand, the same that inscribed a short Latin prayer at the end of the text).

A charming brown blind-stamped calf girdle binding by Ch. De Samblanx and J. Weckesser, 1908, with Gothic-like pattern: covers with lozenge-shaped central decoration of triple rules with fleur-de-lys and half-flower stamps within rectangular frames with the cypher HB on corners, on front cover the names of the binders and the owner and the date, metal brass & clasps (some soiling).

Contents: Calendar, Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Ghost, Hours of the Virgin, Penitential Psalms and Litany, Office of the Dead, Marian Prayers.
Decoration: Calendar in red and blue burnished gold, brown capitals touched in yellow. Fully illuminated and alternating burnished gold and red or blue initials, some capitals touched in yellow.
Illumination: two large miniatures in arched compartments (7 x 4 cm) within fully decorated borders (9 x 6 cm): Annunciation (in a Gothic interior) and David with his harp (on a golden throne in a Gothic interior).
The illuminations and their borders indicate that the manuscript is of French origin. The Calendar has St Martin of Vertou in red on October 24; he is particularly celebrated in the West of France, in Brittany.
Ref. Not in the sale auction catalogue of De Backer's library.
Prov. Hector De Backer (1843-1925), former president of the Société des Bibliophiles et Iconophiles de Belgique (cypher HB on binding).