Horae BMV - Officium Beatae Mariae - 1500

Horae BMV

Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Venezia? -1500?-
(senza data e luogo di stampa)

(74) c.
In octavo - 18.5 X 13 cm.

BEAUTIFUL BOOK OF HOURS, ENRICHED BY HUNDREDS OF HAND-COLORED INITIALS IN RED-BLUE-GREEN.

The text contains a substantial fragment of 74 leaves, all perfectly preserved and inked, bearing rich ornamental frames featuring vegetal, monstrous, macabre, and animal elements, as well as numerous splendid small woodcuts with Latin captions.

Text of difficult dating as no data and place of printing appear, likely referring to a Venetian edition of the very first part of the sixteenth century.

Prestigious paper ex libris with cardinal’s coat of arms, applied to the front flyleaf, attributable to Cardinal Barberini.

Excellent twentieth-century binding in rigid parchment, perfectly preserved.

Inside also very well preserved, with fresh, crisp, and well inked sheets.
Text completely rubricated in contemporary manuscript with hundreds of initials in red-blue-green.
Small professional restorations at the lower margin of the sheets.
Text and illustrations perfectly legible.
Numbering of the 74 leaves noted in pencil.
20th-century flyleaves.

Excellent and fascinating copy of a Book of Hours, albeit incomplete, offered without reserve."