The First Printed Book of Hours in Octavo Size with Fully Developed Borders by Anthoine Vérard: Printed on Vellum and Delightfully Illuminated: One of Two Known Copies

Horae Beta in our Catalogue 75: Horae B. M. V. for the use of Rome. Paris, Jean Dupré for Anthoine Vérard, dated 8.10.1488, illuminated vellum copy.

An early testimony of Vérard’s publishing activities, which were further advanced under the patronage of King Charles VIII.

This early edition is still crafted according to the noble rules of the art of printing, a virtue that, after the King's death in 1498, was no longer honored as consistently in Vérards printing workshop. The book is particularly noteworthy, as it has a fully preserved French-language table, which has nothing to do with the tables of contents of the same name in later Book of Hours, but rather gives the user a very thorough understanding of the typological sequence of borders in the book. We know of only one other copy of this edition, see Morgan Library and Museum.

There are also manuscript passages and miniatures in our copy, which are so assimilated to the print image that one can assume that it was a kind of maquette. As wonderfully illuminated and splendidly preserved as this this present book is, it is truly a pity that all evidence of its provenance was lost.

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.

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