farfel_n02_066_086

86
May '78
Paris $26.09 (120F)
Horae Beatae Muriae Virginis (178x117mm)
Paris: Philippe Pigouchet - ? 16th C. (w. about 1488 - 1515-26)
26 lines - Pentitential Poahanns - 101, 129. giii
Ruled. Printed on vellum. Liquid - gold initials painted on alternate red + blue grown
The 1st authentic date connected to Pigouchet's press is (?)
taken to be that of the Hemes a l'usage de Rome completed
for Vostre on 16 Sept. 1488. He continued ot print well
into the next century. Address: Rue de la Harpe.
(1st Dec. 1491 - earliest)
In 3 yrs Dupre + Verard were the only producers of Horae,
until the printer P. Pigouchet entered the fidd. Pigouchet to
his publisher Simon Vostre produced the mist numerous
+ the most Typical of the 15th C Horae. They were dense to
decoration, the line enriched to what is known as a crible
effect: areas of black punched to tiny dots or stars.

It was in the Book of Hours that the genius of French Printers
first strikingly - [?evinced?] itself. For more than a century the decoration
of manuscript Horae had invited all the skill of the first
illuminators of Europe, + it was in France alone that the attempt
was successfully made to rival teh glories of the scribe + printer
by that of the printer + engraver. More than 300 ed. were
issued altogether in which some 40 different printers had a share.

It is most probable that like other books, the bulk of an
edition of a Book of Hours was printed on paper, but,
judging from the greater number of vellum copies of
various editions which have come down to the present
Time on account of their durability, one would think
the reverse was the case.
It appears to have been the custom to retain the
Al manack for a number of years, conviering exactly the
some period in several different issues. The Almanack
would probably be originally made to commence