[HEURES A LUSAGE DE ROME]. [HEURES A L’USAGE DE ROME]. Hore divine virginis Marie secundum usum Romanum : cum aliis multis folio se queti notatis una cum figuris Apocalipsis et destructio Hierusalem et multis figuris Biblie insertis.

Precious Book of Hours printed on vellum skin decorated with 17 full-page engravings illuminated with gold at the time, with 21 small vignettes equally illuminated and with numerous gilt initials on a blue or red background. The calendar is dated 1518. Lacombe 290 ; Van Praet Catalogue, p. 112, n°135 ; Brunet, Heures, n°251. The iconography is composed, besides the printer’s mark and the anatomical man, of 16 large full-page figures all colored with shimmering colours and inserted inside gilt framings. The 16 engravings represent: - St John the Evangelist. - Arrest of Jesus. - Adam and Eve. - Annunciation. - Visitation. - Nativity. - Annunciation to the Shepherds. - Adoration of the Magi. - Presentation at the temple. - Flight into Egypt. - Presentation of Mary at the Temple. - Bathsheba in her bath. - Resurrection of Lazarus - Crucifixion. - Pentecost. - Annunciation (of a different manner).   The illustration also contains 21 vignettes hand-colored at the time and illuminated. This precious Book of Hours entirely rubricated is thus decorated with all its capital letters painted in gold on an alternated red or blue background. Brunet underlines the rarity of Books of Hours printed by the Hardouins when they are rubricated and illuminated. « We can find quite precious copies because of the paintings and decorated letters that illustrate them. It appêrs that those gilt and coloured letters are the work of Germain Hardouyn, ‘in arte litteriare peritissimus’, as bêrs the subscription of the Hours of the Virgin, dated 1514 » Brunet, V, 1628. Gilles Hardouyn settled at the end of the Nostre dame Bridge where he worked from 1509 until 1521. After this date his associate Germain Hardouyn who was his associate in the bookshop, succeeded him and temporarily occupied his home. He himself printed until 1528. Precious copy illuminated on vellum skin, coming from the library of Montalembert with ex-libris and stamp of the Earl of Montalembert.