Print Description

Book of Hours of Jean le Sauvage and Jacqueline de Boulogne (Use of Rome)
In Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on parchment
Belgium, Ghent or Bruges, dated 1503
15 large miniatures and 5 small miniatures by Jean Markant (active Bruges and Lille, 14891532/1534)
177 ff., preceded and followed by a modern parchment flyleaf, modern pencil foliation (collation: i4, ii6, iii6, iv9 (8+1,
with i a singleton), v7 [6+1, with i a singleton], v2, vi9 [8+1, with i a singleton], vii9 [8+1, with v a singleton],
viii8, ix11 [10+1, with i a singleton], x2, xi8, xii8, xiii2, xiv7 [8-2, missing i-ii, + 1, with current vi a singleton], xv9
[8+1, with ii a singleton], xvi6, xvii10, xviii6, xix6, xx8, xxi8, xxii5 [6-1, missing I, likely cancelled, no interruption
in text], xxiii8, xxiv8, xxv4), written in a littera cursiva, in 3 hands, ruled in pink the basic part of the manuscript (ff.
5-157) is the work of Jean Markant, who signed the colophon on f. 157, 17 lines (calendar) (100 x 12 x 55 mm.), 15
lines (text) (99 x 72 mm.), additional part I, 25 lines (99 x 72 mm.), additional part II, 17 lines (99 x 69 mm.), the 2
initial illustrations (ff. 2 and 4), with the donors’ portraits, are the work of another, unidentified, artist, miniatures are
painted on single leaves, the other ones on bifolia,15 large (12 full-page, 3 half-page) and 5 small miniatures, 13 text
folios facing the miniatures with marginal decoration, initial flowering of 2 and 4 lines (acanthus-like and painted on a
golden background), sometimes with plant motifs in the rumen of the letter, liquid gold 1-line initials on alternating blue
and pale rose-colored grounds, the larger miniatures with Ghent/Bruges border decoration, traces of use, a few
miniatures slightly rubbed, offset of a pilgrim’s badge on f. 177. Bound in modern brown leather tooled, in imitation of a
medieval binding, modern parchment pastedowns and flyleaves. Dimensions 150 x 107 mm.
Of capital importance for the history of miniature painting in the region of Lille and Tournai,
this is the very manuscript around which the career of its artist-scribe, Jean Markant, is
reconstructed. Considered lost (Vanwijnsberghe: “whereabouts unknown”), the reappearance of
this manuscript known as the Le Sauvage Hours, signed and dated by colophon and with
portraits and coats of arms of the donors, prompts a reconsideration of the artist and his place in
the evolution of manuscript illumination in the southern Low Countries at the beginning of the
sixteenth century.
PROVENANCE
1. The original owners probably were Jean le Sauvage and his wife Jacqueline de
Boulogne, shown while praying on an added leaf (f. 4). Jean le Sauvage, Lord
Escobecques (near Lille), was a high courtier in the service of Philip the Fair and of his
heir Emperor Charles V. He was appointed President of the Great Council in Malines
(1508) and Great Chancellor of Burgundy (1518). He died in Saragossa in 1518.
Jacqueline de Boulogne was Lady Le Maisnil. After her death the manuscript was owned
by François le Sauvage. The inscription on f. 177v reads: “Ces presentes heures ont esté
a dame Jaqueline de Boulogne et depuys son trepas a Franchoise le Sauvaige.” The
manuscript was written and illuminated by Jean Markant according to the colophon on f.
157: “Ces heures furent escriptes et illuminees par moy a toujours indigne serviteur
Jennin Markant, L’an 1502. Le premier jour de mars” [March 1, 1503 (n.st.)].
2. At the end of the 18th century, the manuscript was in the possession of Norbert de
Schamphelere (1741-1805), one of the last Benedictine monks of St Adrian’s Abbey at
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Geraardsbergen (Grammont), and a local Latin teacher. At his death he gave it to Albert
Spitaels, a member of a local banking family: in a red ink on f. 177v, “Ce superbe
manuscrit faisoit l’ornement de la Bibliothèque de l’Abbaye de Saint-Adrien à Grammont
et fut possédé ensuite par Dom Norbert de Schamphelere [1741-1805], religieux
supprimé de la ditte abbaye, qui au lit de la mort en a gratifié Albert Spitaels le 11 juillet
1805, quatre jours avant son trépas, R.I.P.”
3. Owner’s mark “AL” in a circle with a cross above it.
4. In 1991, the book was owned by a Dutch collector. It was presented by B. Van Dyck,
acting as an intermediary, to the city council of Grammont (Geraardsbergen). See
A[lbert] S[chrever], “Koopt Geraardsbergen 16de-eeuws manuscript?” Het Volk, March
1, 1991. The negotiations failed and the manuscript remained in private hands. (Its
history is recounted by Vanwijnsberghe, 2006, p. 146, note 2, and see also Van
Bockstaele, 2002, p. 195).
TEXT
Part I added (before 1518):
f. 1-1v, blank;
ff. 2-3v, prayer, French translation of “Stabat Mater Dolorosa”;
Original part (1502):
ff. 5-16v, Calendar in French, with many northern French saints, but none specific to a locale in
Lille: Saint Firmin (18 April), Saint Robert (21 April), Saint Gilles (September 1), Saint Bertin
(September 5);
ff. 17v - 35, Short Hours of the Cross with prayers indulgenced, followed by the Short Hours of
the Holy Spirit (f. 27), “Veni Creator” (f. 33), indulgenced prayer of Pope Alexander VI (f.
32v), “Le pape Alixandre VIe de ce nom donna a ceulz qui diront ceste salutation Xm ans de
pardons de pechié mortelz et XXIIIIm de pechié venielz et l’envoya a Duren en Allemaigne ou
est le chief madame Sainte Anne”;
ff. 35v-95v, Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome, rubric, Heures de nostre dame, interspersed with
prayers on the Passion for each hour starting at Lauds (f. 47v), rubric, Devote meditation et oroison de
la passion nostre ss. Jhesucrist, incipit, “Deus qui manus tuas et pedes tuos …” [prayers on the
Passion also recorded in San Marino, Huntington Museum, MS 1166];
ff. 95v-99v, various prayers, Prayer of St. Gregory, rubric (f. 97), En disant ces oroisons on acquiert
.xlvi. mille ans de pardons pour penser a la passion, incipit, “Domine ihesu xpriste adorote in cruce
pendentem …”; Suffrage to St. Michael;
ff. 100v-117v, Seven Penitential Psalms, litanies and prayers;
ff. 117v-123, various prayers including Obsecro te for masculine use (f. 117v), Stabat Mater (f. 121);
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ff. 123-130v, Suffrages, including St. John the Baptist, St. James, Saint Jerome (f. 124v), St.
Anne (f. 126), St. Margaret (f. 127v), St. Apollonia (f. 128), prayer for the Eucharist (f. 129),
prayer indulgenced, “En disant cest oroison on acquiert xi mille ans de pardons”;
ff. 131-157, Office of the Dead (three readings and responses), rubric, Vegilles pour les trespasses a
vespres;
f. 157, Colophon, “Ces heures furent escriptes et illuminees par moy a toujours indigne serviteur
Jennin Markant, L’an 1502. Le premier jour de mars” [March 1, 1503 (n.st.)];
Part II added (16th century):
ff. 158-176, Fifteen “Oes” attributed to St. Bridget, rubric, Sensuyvent quinez oraisons bient devotes
faisant mention quasi de toute la passion …;
ff. 176-177, prayer to God, incipit, “Seigneur Dieu je scay par foy et crois fermement que tu es
le vray dieu (…).”
f. 177v, blank with marks of late origin, in a cursive 15th-to 16th-century script, in black ink, “Ces
presentes heures ont esté a dame Jaqueline de Boulogne et depuys son trepas a Franchoise le
Sauvaige,” in a red ink, “Ce superbe manuscrit faisoit l’ornement de la Bibliothèque de l’Abbaye
de Saint-Adrien à Grammont et fut possédé ensuite par Dom Norbert de Schamphelere [17411805], religieux supprimé de la ditte abbaye, qui au lit de la mort en a gratifié Albert Spitaels le
11 juillet 1805, quatre jours avant son trépas, R.I.P.”
ILLLUSTRATION
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 4, Donors in Prayer with their Patron Saints before the Virgin and Child;
f. 17v, Crucifixion;
f. 26v, Pentecost;
f. 35v, Annunciation;
f. 48v, Garden of Gethsemane;
f. 61v, Christ before Pilate;
f. 66v, Way to Calvary;
f. 72v, Christ Nailed to the Cross;
f. 77v, Crucifixion;
f. 82v, Lamentation;
f. 91v, Entombment;
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f. 97v, Mass of St. Gregory;
f. 100v, King David in Prayer;
f. 124v, St. Jerome Penitent;
f. 126v, Holy Family, Virgin and Child with Saints Anne and Joachim;
5 small miniatures:
f. 2, Crucifixion (f. 2);
f. 123, St. John the Baptist (f. 123);
f. 124, St. James;
f. 127v, St. Margaret;
f. 128, St. Apollonia
Illuminated border:
f. 131, Donors approached by death, with a scull in the margin, and a French “memento mori”
verse in the lower margin.
The twenty miniatures in this Book of Hours are by Jean Markant, who belonged to a group of
illuminators active in Lille at the turn of the sixteenth century. Van Wijnsberghe has studied his
biography, reconstructed his oeuvre, and placed him in the context of art production in the
southern Low Countries (see Van Wijnsberghe, 2001, and 2006). He is first documented in
Tournai in 1489, when he was a student of John César, and in Bruges in 1512, when he is
recorded as a member of the guild, probably to gain access to booming market for manuscript
illumination in that town. During the first three decades of the sixteenth century, until 15321534, he was active in Lille for both private individuals and for local institutions.
The reconstruction of Markant’s oeuvre is based on this very manuscript, called the “Le
Sauvage” Hours, discussed by Vanwijnsberghe (Los Angeles, 2006, pp. 135-136, cited there as
“whereabouts unknown”). The “Le Sauvage” Hours refers directly to the name of the artist: “Ce
heures furent escriptes et illumines par moy a tous indigne serviteur Jennin Markant, l’an
1502....” Vanwijnsberghe connects another nine Books of Hours to the “Le Sauvage Hours”:
“Most of them contain internal evidence pointing to Lille as the place of their origin”
(Vanwijnsberghe, Los Angeles, 2006, p. 137; a provisional handlist of works attributed to Jean
Markant found on p. 146). We have added an additional work to the corpus published on
www.medievalbooksofhours.com and securely dated 1498 by inscription (now Private
Collection). On the relations of Markant with Bruges, see Vanwijnsberghe, Los Angeles, 2006,
pp. 140-141).
Vanwijnsberghe stresses how Jean Markant and his workshop provided Prayerbooks mostly for
urban patrons and burghers (rather than stately courtiers like the Master of Edward IV) and
recalls how Markant was often involved in all stages of the production of prayerbooks, from the
illumination to the transcription of the texts: “All this shows that Markant had the production of
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his books well under control, practicing in some cases a form of ‘vertical concentration.’ If he
had assistants, they must have worked in close collaboration with him” (Vanwijnsberghe, Los
Angeles, 2006, p. 145). Compare compositions in the present manuscript with others attributed
to Jean Markant, for instance the Annunciation in Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, W. 435, f.
43v (see Vanwijnsberghe, Paris, 2006, pp. 371-372, fig. 9 and color pl., p. 467, no. 2) with the
present Annunciation (f. 35v).
The hypothesis that the decline of Tournai as a center of illuminated book production allowed
for the rise and increase of importance of Lille, which replaced Tournai, as an active center of
manuscript production is put forward by Vanwijnsberghe (Paris, 2006, p. 375). Vanwijnsberghe
shows how Lille benefited from the traditions of Tournai and Bruges and by its relative neutral
status in times of political instability in Flanders. The present manuscript is a precious dated
witness to Jean Markant’s oeuvre and, with its signature and date, provides the starting point for
attribution of other works to him.
This artist was influenced by Bruges illumination, in particular the Master of Edward IV, who
was active in Bruges from the later 1470s and then apparently moved away in the troubled
1480s, perhaps to Lille, where he attracted patrons from neighboring Hainault. The Master of
Edward IV is named after the magnificent volumes ordered by King Edward IV of England in
the years around 1480 (see T. Kren and S. McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance, pp.295-305,
335-43). Scholars have noted strong relationships in style and composition between the Master
of Edward IV and Jean Markant.
LITERATURE
Van Bockstaele, Geert. Het culturele erfgoed van de Sint-Adriaansabdij van Geraardsbergen in woord en beeld,
1096-2002, Geraardsbergen, 2002.
Vanwijnsberghe, Dominique. “De fin or et d’azur: Les commanditaires de livres et le métier de
l’enluminure à Tournai à la fin du Moyen Age (XIVe-XVe siècles), in Corpus of Illuminated
Manuscripts, Low Countries, 7, Louvain, Peters, 2001.
Vanwijnsberghe, Dominique. “Le Maître des Heures de Claremont. Un enlumineur lillois du
dernier tiers du XVe siècle,” in Quand la Peinture était dans les livres. Mélanges en l’honneur de François
Avril, ed. M. Hofmann and C. Zöhl, Paris, 2006, pp. 367-381.
Vanwijnsberghe, Dominique. “Marketing Books for Burghers: Jean Markant’s Activity in
Tournai, Lille and Bruges,” in Flemish Manuscript Painting in Context. Recent research, based on symposia held
at the J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles (Sept. 5-6, 2003) and at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London (Feb. 21,
2004), ed., E. Morrison and T. Kren, Los Angeles, 2006, pp. 135-148.
BOH 59
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