Illuminated Manuscripts. The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Catalog of the manuscripts inherited by James A. de Rothschild from his father Baron Edmond de Rothschild, now the property of the National Trust for places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty (of Great Britain)

Published for the National Trust by Office du Livre, Fribourg, first edition, 1977. Cloth, large 8vo, gilt device on front board, top edge gilt, 32 cm,. 608 pp, 46 colour plates (some mounted), numerous black and white illustrations. A splendid catalogue of a superb collection, but more than this since the catalogue was intended also to explainand illustrate Delaissé's method of examining and interpreting manuscripts. The earliest manuscripts in the collection "are a thirteenth century Italian Bible, which is decorated but not illustrated, and a Liturgical Psalter, which was probaby written between 1326 and 1328 and which was decorated and illustrated in the workshop of Jean Pucelle. The remaining manuscripts are all fifteenth or sixteenth century, and, with the exception of two Italian Books of Hours, they are French or Netherlandish. The quality of the collection is rather uneven. The outstanding manuscripts are two Books of Hours illuminated respectively by Jean Bourdichon and by Simon Bening."-from a contemporary review. From the introduction: "The material description of each manuscript in this catalogue ...describes in succession: I. The material and its size. II. The construction of the book in quires or gatherings. III. The preparation of the bifolio, by pricking and ruling. IV. The text, of which contents and script are examined separately, V. The decorations, in the order of their importance in relation to the text: initials, paragraph signs, line endings, and borders. VI. The illustration of the text with miniatures, of which the subjects and techniques are distinguished. VII. The binding. VIII. Additions to the book IX. Provenance. ...The analytical description is followed by a commentary that attempts to interpret the material facts discovered, to introduce the reader to the life of the books and to understand,if possible, their social significance...Clearly the value of a catalogue of this kind must depend to a great extent on the illustrations. These have been made as numerous as possible and most of the manuscripts are represented by reproductions in colour. Pages of text are illustrated as well as those with miniatures, and one calendar page from each Book of Hours is reproduced." The manuscripts described are: 1. Bible (Italy, mid-thirteenth century); 2. Liturgical Psalter (Paris, workshop of Jean Pucelle, 1326-1328?); 3. Thirteen Miniatures from a 'Bible historiale' (Paris, f.1405); 4. Book of Hours of Guillebert de Lannoy (Southern Low Countries?, c.1430); 5. Eleven Miniatures from a Book of Hours (Southern Low Countries, c.1430); 6. Book of Hours (Amiens, c. 1430-1440); 7. Book of Hours (Eastern France?, c.1460); 8. Christine de Pisan, Epitre d'Othéa (Lille, publishing house of Jean Miélot, f.1455), illustrated for Philip of Cleves (Ghent?, c.1485); 9. Book of Hours for a Catalan, with additions (Bruges, c.1460 and c.1475); 10. Book of Hours (Northern France, c.1470); 11. Jean de Courcy, Chronicle called 'La Bouquechardière' (Rouen, c.1465); 12. Book of Hours (Rouen, c.1470); 13. Book of Hours (Paris?, late-fifteenth century); 14. Book of Hours (Rouen, c.1490); 15. Life and Fables of Aesop; Fables of Avianus (Ghent?, c.1490); 16. Book of Hours (Florence, c.1490); 17. Statutes and Armorial of the Order of the Golden Fleece (Flanders, 1481-1490; additions up to 1556); 18. Book of Hours (Naples, c.1497); 19. Missal (Paris, c.1500?); 20. Book of Hours (Tours, workshop of Jean Bourdichon, c.1505); 21. Book of Hours (Paris, i.1485-1500); 22. André Delavigne, Coronation of Anne of Brittany (Paris, c.1505); 23. Book of Hours (Northern France, early-sixteenth century); 24. Book of Hours of Jean Regnart (Paris), Nicholas Forget, (c.1510); 25. Book of Hours (Rouen, c.1510); 26. Book of Hours (Bruges, workshop of Simon Bening, 1540). Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrapper, without the slipcase.