Introduction and Commentaries by John Plummer · George Braziller, New York, circa 1966 · In Publisher's Slipcase
The Hours of Catherine of Cleves is one of the great illuminated manuscripts of the fifteenth century, made in the Netherlands for Catherine, Duchess of Guelders. Its miniatures are famous for their invention and detail, from devotional scenes framed in elaborate borders to the monstrous Mouth of Hell. This volume reproduces the manuscript's miniatures in colour, each accompanied by John Plummer's commentary, with an introduction on the manuscript and its history. Plummer was curator of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at the Pierpont Morgan Library, and his study reconstructed the original sequence of the manuscript's leaves.
As stated in the book, it is reproduced from the illuminated manuscript belonging to the Guennol Collection and the Pierpont Morgan Library, and it was printed by Smeets in Weert, the Netherlands. This copy is bound in textured boards stamped in gilt with the Cleves arms, and housed in the publisher's slipcase with its colour heraldic label. It is undated, but its 1966 Library of Congress number, the publisher's pre-ZIP New York address and the absence of an ISBN are all consistent with the first printing.
Book Near Fine to Fine. Binding tight, pages clean and bright with no toning, and the colour plates fresh throughout. Slight bump at the head of the spine. Slipcase Very Good, with a small water stain to the paper label on the spine.
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