Ces presentes Heures a lusaige de Rouan
Immaculate Conception
F-d8m1
Assembled from observations by Rebecka Lindau, Head, The John Miller Burnam Classics Library, University of Cincinnati with Yo Shionoya, Special Projects Student Assistant, integrating information from the seller.
General Information
Printed
From the seller's description:
The full-page panel depicts The Virgin of the Litanies: The Virgin is centered, frontal, opening her robe to display the Christ Child being held by Christ the Savior of the world - both within a mandorla with flames. She is blessed by the half-figure of God-Father (centered at top) in papal tiara with cross-topped orb in left hand. Across the top is a scroll inscribed 'tota pulcra es amica mea et macula non est in te' (Thou art all fair, O my love, & there is not a spot in thee - Song of Solomon, 4:7). 15 labeled symbols of the Virgin surround the central figure (clockwise): Star; Foliate stalk with four roses; Olive tree; Gateway to heaven; Fountain;
Mirror; City of God; Fenced garden divided into 4 flower beds by cross-shaped path; Well; Lily;
Rod of Jesse; Tower of David; Young cedar; Moon with face; Sun. (Similar depiction: Walters Cat. 203).
Text opens Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which had its origin in the rite of the Eastern Church, brought to Western Europe from the Greek communities in Sicily (9th century). The feast was formally accepted & prescribed by the Franciscans in 1263. Pope Sixtus IV (himself a Franciscan) approved the inclusion of the feast in the curial Roman missal in 1476, which led to an almost immediate acceptance all over the church from 1477.
On this basis, it is likely that this is the book of hours Ces presentes Heures a lusaige de Rouan published by Vostre and Pigouchet, and dated to 1506 by the almanac (1506-1520). Bohatta 1341, BP16_100747, Inventaire chronologique des éditions parisiennes du XVIe siècle, v. 1, 1506, n. 96.
Original Condition
In-8o