A Book of Hours by Philippe Pigouchet: Exceptionally Beautiful and Fully Illuminated by the Master of Robert Gaguin

Horae 9.0.1 in our upcoming Catalogue 100: Horae B. M. V. for the Use of Rome. Paris, Philippe Pigouchet, 19.4.1494. Illuminated copy on vellum.

Excellently and completely preserved horarium on vellum, illuminated throughout - including the border decoration - by a highly talendet illuminator of the late 15th century: Robert Gaguin. An extraordinary find!

The Master of Robert Gaguin, a book illuminator active in Paris around 1485/1500, is named after an illuminated copy of Caesar's Gallic War, which was translated by the humanist Robert Gaguin and is now privately owned (formerly in our possession, described in our catalogue 31, Leuchtendes Mittelalter Vol. VI, No. 35). As a book illuminator, he often appears in the richly decorated Parisian Books of Hours of the last decade of the 15th century (see our catalogue series Paris mon Amour). His stylistic relation to the Parisian painter François le Barbier fils († 1501), formerly known as Maître de Jacques de Besançon and son of the elder François Barbier, also known as Maître François, is related to the most successful illuminators in the French capital before 1500, whose compositions and colour chords he adopts in his own works.

This book is part of the largest collection of printed Books of Hours in the world, which is offered for sale en bloc.

The collection has been extensively documented in Catalogues No. 50 & 75 (nine volumes), available in our online shop. Catalogue 100, where the present copy will be described, will be published in the course of 2024.

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