Horae. Use of Rome.

12mo (12,5 x 9 cm): [162 (of 166)] ff., on vellum, in Latin, written in a red and brown textura (text area: 7 x 5,5 cm), 12 ll. ruled in violet (ff. [14, 67, 99 & 103] missing = illuminated opening ff. of matins, none, hours of the Holy Spirit & Office of the Dead, upper corner of ff. [4-5] torn off with loss of text, f. [13v] with ink stains, some soiling and spotting, contemp. and later ms. annot., some sm. offsets).

18th-c. sheep, cover ruled with gilt borders and corner floral tools, gilt-orn. spine with raised bands and a label (covers with sm. scratches). Cut short.

Content: Contemp. ms. annot. (ff. [1-2]), Perpetual and equinox calendars (f. [3]), Calendar (ff. [4-13]), Hours of the Virgin (ff. [15-81]; ff. [14 & 67] missing), Seven penitential psalms and litany (ff. [74-94]), Short Hours of the Cross (ff. [95-98]), Hours of the Holy Spirit (ff. [100-102]; f. [99] missing), Office of the Dead (ff. [104-140]; f. [103] missing), Obsecro te (ff. [140-145]), Psalter of St. Jerome (ff. [145-166]).
Decoration: One and two-lines initials in burnished gold on blue or red grounds with white infills, line-ending in blue and red with gold and white infills, rubrics in red, f. [145v] with a three-lines initial in burnished gold on blue ground with white infills and a large gold bar baguette in the margin with gold and blue acanthus alterning with spray of flowers and fruit made by a second artitst.
Illumination: Six (of 10) full-page miniatures in arched compartments (9,5 x 5 cm) within full gilt decorated borders (11,5 x 8 cm): Visitation (on a path in the countryside with a castle in the background; the middle of the image is washed out), Nativity (in a stable, with two saints kneeling), Battle of Jericho (in the countryside with two walled towns in the background), Adoration of the Magi (in a stable; faces faded), Massacre of the Innocents (in the countryside with Joseph, Mary and the Infant fleeing in Egypt in the background), Crucifixion (in a landscape and between the two thieves).
Prov. Some women's ms. entries in French, one located in the "departement du montblanc" (18th c.). - Amaury de Ghellinck d'Elseghem Vaernewyck (arm. bookpl. "Bibliotheca Elseghemensis", lithogr. by N. Heins at Ghent).