Hardouyn - Heures à l’usage de Rome - 1514

BOOK OF HOURS ON PARCHMENT ENTIRELY RUBRICATED AND MINIATED IN GOLD, BOUND IN ARTAILDIC LEATHER
Extraordinary Parisian specimen by Hardouyn, created to astonish. Entirely printed on parchment, embellished with a refined contemporary coloring with gold highlights and preserved in a rare seventeenth-century binding decorated with gilded medallions and heraldic provenance, this volume represents one of the most exclusive examples of early sixteenth-century French production. It sits on the boundary between manuscript illumination and printed book, meant not for a simple believer but for a collector or a high-ranking patron. The presence of the almanac for the years 1514-1527 also allows us to place the production of the work precisely in the years immediately following 1514, at the height of the famous Hardouyn workshop’s activity.
REASONS FOR COLLECTING
• Entirely parchment-printed copy, an exceptionally rare feature.
• Contemporary coloring with gold accents on almost the entire illustrative apparatus.
• Production of the renowned Parisian workshop Hardouyn, one of the leading editors of French Books of Hours.
• Preserves a rare seventeenth-century binding decorated with gilded medallions.
• Historically documented and prestigious provenances.
• A highly alluring object for collectors of Books of Hours, vellum books, and Renaissance French printing.

MARKET VALUE
French illustrated Books of Hours from the first half of the sixteenth century have long been one of the most solid segments of the international bibliographic market.
Parchement-printed copies, intended for an aristocratic clientele, were produced in very limited quantities. In this case, the contemporary gold coloring, the documented historical provenance, and above all the presence of the rare seventeenth-century binding add significant collectible value.
It has strong commercial appeal and can reasonably be placed in a price range between 12,000 and 25,000 euros, with particular interest from collectors specialized in Books of Hours and vellum volumes.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Text in Gothic type with an almanac for the years 1514-1527. Full-page title page with the famous Hardouyn centaur mark and a handwritten French prayer inserted into the space of the banner.
Illustrated with 27 vignettes in the text, rich ornamental borders and illuminated initials. The entire illustrative apparatus, except for one vignette, has been hand-colored in the contemporary era and enriched with gold highlights.
On the verso of the last leaf is present the large Hardouyn printer’s mark with the Portugal coat of arms and the armillary sphere.
Seventeenth-century full calf binding with gilt lines on the boards, central medallion depicting the Crucifixion on the front board and the Annunciation on the back board, gold-tooled spine, gilded edges. A binding of considerable rarity and historical interest, showing signs of wear. Provenance stamped on the board.
Pp. 194, 15 leaves missing.
In old books, with a centuries-long history, some imperfections may be present, not always detectable in the description.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Heures à l’usage de Rome tout au long sans riens requerir. Avec les figures de l’Apocalypse & plusieurs autres figures.
Paris, Gilles et Germain Hardouyn, circa 1514.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The great revolution of French Books of Hours in the first half of the sixteenth century lay in the ability to transfer the prestige of illuminated manuscripts into the world of print. No Parisian workshop interpreted this process better than Hardouyn. The parchment-printed copies represented the absolute pinnacle of their production: works destined for wealthy clients who wished to benefit from typographic precision without sacrificing the material prestige of the manuscript. The contemporary gold coloring further accentuates this ambition, transforming each copy into an almost unique object. The famous Apocalypse figures add a symbolic and visionary dimension that reflects the deep spirituality of pre-Reformation France. The presence of a seventeenth-century binding decorated with sacred iconography further confirms that the volume continued to be regarded as a precious object worthy of preservation even more than a century after its printing.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Anonymous work derived from the tradition of the Offices of the Church of Rome. Gilles Hardouyn and his son Germain were among the most important printers and booksellers active in Paris between the late 15th and the first quarter of the 16th century. Their workshop became famous for the production of illustrated Books of Hours, characterized by complex iconography, high typographic quality, and frequent use of parchment for luxury copies destined for the aristocracy and the higher middle class.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The almanac for the years 1514-1527 allows us to attribute this edition with good certainty to the years immediately after 1514. The Hardouyns produced numerous editions of Heures à l’usage de Rome, but parchment copies constituted a special and very limited print run. These copies were often colored to order and sometimes personalized with handwritten additions. The survival of complete copies is rare; that of parchment copies with contemporary coloring and documented provenances is even more exceptional.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Bohatta, Bibliographie der Livres d’Heures, no. 970.
Lacombe, Livres d’Heures imprimés au XVe et XVIe siècle, no. 257.
Pettegree, French Vernacular Books, no. 29611.
Mortimer, Harvard College Library, French Sixteenth Century Books, see nos. 295 and 297.
Bibliographie des éditions parisiennes du XVIe siècle (BP16), no. 102528.
BnF, Catalogue Général, parchment Hardouyn copies from the early decades of the XVIth century.
WorldCat, international catalogs of Books of Hours printed by the Hardouyns.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, records of similar copies held in Italian libraries.
Provenance: Pierre Noel (superlibris dated 1602, with a later alteration of the date to 1502); De Ghellinck d’Elseghem Vaernewyck (heraldic ex libris).