Verve No. 7: Les Très Riches Heures de Duc de Berry

Portfolio

Tipped-in heliogravures of the 15th century Book of Hours as commissioned by Duke de Berry. Arguably the most famous illuminated manuscript of the Hours to emerge in the late Gothic period and beyond, the publisher of Verve, Teriade, had long admired the book, painted between 1412 and 1416 by the famed Dutch Limbourg Brothers, and wanted to recreate its richly detailed images of canonical hours - prayers corresponding to the divisions of the day - as faithfully as possible to allow the public to peruse, admire, and find inspiration from them, as had he.

The seventh volume of Verve, the French Review of Art and Literature went into production in Paris in March of 1939, and continued production as World War II broke out. The painstaking process of recreating the colors of the manuscipt as faithfully as possible, using color plates and a press, was laborious. Published in March of 1940 as much of Europe descended into chaos, it was timely, as perhaps not since the Great War had prayer been so needed.

As described in the introduction of the book, the process was nothing short of a miracle. "We should like to say a word about the difficulties which had to be surmounted in order to present in facsimilie the Calendar from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ...it was largely due to M. Henri Malo, curator of the Conde Museum at Chantilly, that the slow work of production was able to cbe continued during the first months of the war. ...The purity of the manuscript's colors, as Robert Draeger discovered, defied the sensitive emulsions of the photographic plates. Only after patient effort could the minute drawing and transparent colors be reconstituted. The result achieved demanded extraordinary craftsmanship..."

This is a good copy with its original cover wraps featuring embossing and gilt. The binding is secure and the pages are clean, with all twelve intact tipped-in heliogravures illustrating each month's Hours. Usual wear to the cover with some soiling at opening edge and peeling to the spine, bumped corners. Condition is reflected in the price. Text by Henri Malo, translated by Robert Sage, with credit given to the Conde Museum in Chantilly, France, which housed the original manuscript.