1504 POST-INCUNABULA BOOK of HOURS by Thielman Kerver fully illustrated antique

[HEURES à l'usage de Rome]


[HOURS for the use of Rome]


[Hore intemerate beate Marie virginis; Secundum usum Romanum].


Paris: Thielman Kerver for Gillet Remacle; March 8, 1504

 18th-century  vellum binding

 gilt title on the spine, red speckled edges (a small tear with loss on the spine,  some leaves reinforced at the joint during its later binding, small old lateral repairs sometimes with traces of manuscript, a few minor repairs.

Rare post-incunabulum Book of Hours.

Printed on laid paper in bastard Gothic script by Thielman Kerver.

The text is entirely framed and rubricated in red and blue.


Collation:

116 ff (out of 124: missing a1-2, d7-8, f1, m1, and p7-8).


Complete with the anatomical man (f.1), 13 large figures (out of 17) engraved in black.

No copies are listed in CCFr or WorldCat.


Each page of text is set within a beautiful frame richly decorated with engraved vignettes, either in relief or on a white background:
biblical scenes, numerous hunting scenes, floral decorations, sometimes large patristic or divine figures, scrolls, skeletons, biblical scenes, imaginary bestiary, chimeras, nudes, and richly decorated or ornamental borders on each page.

The engraved figures by Kerver from this period are sometimes attributed to copperplate engravings based on compositions by the Master of Anne of Brittany (or Master of the Rose Window of the Apocalypse in the Sainte-Chapelle), commissioned from 1497 onwards, or to woodcuts by Kerver himself when he published his first Book of Hours three years earlier.

A certain reuse of some of the material is evident when comparing Kerver's earlier publications.

Our edition also features, at the bottom of each page, a small, elongated woodcut, decorated in the Gothic style of the period.

A period handwritten bookplate, difficult to decipher, is located in the colophon.

Size 4 1/2 by 6 3/4"

Text in French
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Thielman Kerver
Major printer and seller of religious books, originally from Coblentz but active in Paris 1497-1522.
After his death the printing business was taken over by his widow Yolande Bonhomme , then by his son Thielman II Kerver (who was later succeeded by his son Jacques)
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