Livre d'Heures Maria Stuart

Livre d'Heures Maria Stuart; facsimilé edition of the manuscript - Tours: 1510/1515 - owned by the Dukes of Würtemberg. 48x32 mm., 308 p.; 14 miniature illuminations, gold initials, border decorations.

Limited edition of 980 copies. Darmstadt: Facsimilia Art & Edition Ebert KG, 1988. Bound in richly decorated full leather by Atelier Stemmle AG, Zürich; housed in a blue linen box with a magnifying glass and a commentary by Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin Decker-Hauff, Prof. Dr. Eberhard König, Myra D. Orth Ph. D. and Prof. Dr. Johannes Rathofer.



One of my finest aquisitions of the past year is this beautiful facsimilé of the Book of Hours of Maria Stuart. This is the smallest book of hours known and because of its history, the quality of the script and the fine illuminations regarded as the most precious manuscript in private ownership. The book is written in 21 lines per page by an unnamed scriptor, sometimes connected to Geofroy Tory. The miniatures point to an illuminator of the "School of Rouen" at that time situated near the Royal Court in Tours.


Maria Stuart (1542-1587), daughter of the Scottish King Jacob V, as a six year old girl engaged with the French Dauphine, came back to Scotland in 1560 as an eighteen years old queen widow. She was beheaded in 1587 being a roman catholic heir of the throne of England, after a show trial initiated by her protestant sister Elisabeth. Maria Stuart brought the Book of Hours from France to Scotland and via James VI/I and Charles I it came in possesion of the Dukes of Orléans. Mary of France, married to Alexander Duke of Würtemberg, brought the book to Würtemberg,