LIVRE DE PRIÈRES - Illustré à l'aide des Ornements Des Manuscrits du Moyen Age / classés dans l'ordre chronologique et selon les styles divers qui se sont succédé depuis le huitième siècle jusqu'au seizième.

(BOOK OF PRAYERS / BOOK OF HOURS - Illustrated with Ornamentations from Manuscripts of the Middle Ages...)

By Bernard Charles Mathieu and Ferdinand Denis.

Published by Charles Mathieu and Printed by Chez J. Renouard, PARIS, 1858 and 1862.

Two Volumes, full calf leather, front and rear covers blind stamped, spine titled in gilt, five raised spine bands, all edges gauffered and gilt, dentelles in blind with corner fleurons, marbled endpapers, 5x7 inches (13x18 cm). Pagination: 149, [13]; 250 pp. Text in French.

Volume I illustrated throughout with gorgeous chromolithographs. Volume II a text volume with b&w ornamental framing.

A beautiful prayer book.

Volume I, the most important of the two volumes and published two years prior to Volume II, is exquisitely embellished throughout with chromolithograph borders and plates depicting medieval manuscripts. Preliminary pages of this volume give details of the border ornamentations:. Byzantine for the Morning Prayers, Carolingian for the Evening Prayers, etc. Each section of prayers has a chromolithograph frontispiece. At the end there is also The Mass for Marriage. The lithography is by Charles Mathieu. Simply GORGEOUS.

Volume II contains a history of European decorative manuscript painting from antiquity through the Gothic period. The text is written by Ferdinand Denis.

Provenance: A great association copy. Both volumes have the bookplate of ROBERT ORMES DOUGAN, b.1904 d.1999, on the front pastedown. His signature is also on the blank verso of the front free endpaper of Volume I. Dougan was the director of the Dublin Library and later Chief Librarian of the Huntington Library. He was renowned for his knowlege of The Book of Kells. He donated many books and medieval manuscripts to Occidental College, as well as to other universities. Tipped in OVER the Dougan bookplates is an Occidental College bookplate which has a "Released" notice printed at its bottom. The OC bookplate can be lifted up to fully reveal Dougan's bookplate below. Obituaries that detail Dougan's life can easily found online at The Guardian, The Independent, and L.A. Times websites.

Condition: The covers of both volumes have some rubbing and there are nicks to the leather along the spine folds, but they remain solid and lovely. Internally, Volume I has some foxing and toning throughout, heaviest to the early and later pages, otherwise both volumes are tight, bright clean and unmarked.

Volume I, with its gorgeous chromolithograph plates and ornamental borders, has become almost impossible to find.