Jerry Morris wrote:

A hell of a provenance!

Yes, indeed. He apparently bought it in the 1930s from a London dealer named
Simpson (if my memory serves me right). I've often wondered what he paid for
it. There is a price on the front pastedown of what looks like one pound
fifteen shillings, but it's very faded and hard to tell for sure. But even
in the 1930s a book of hours would surely have cost more than that!

The book has marks indicating it was part of at least two library
collections. One - on a title page that (although it is on vellum like the
rest of the book) postdates the book itself by hundreds of years - reads,
"A.3615" followed by "A45: No. 2." These may be two separate library
catalogue numbers, though they are both written in black ink in a similar
hand, perhaps the same hand that wrote the title page itself and added the
page numberings throughout the book.

My guess - based in part on manuscript additions to the text - is that this
book of hours had a long working life and actually remained in use as a book
of devotion until not long before it was rebound in 1733. These catalogue
entries and page numbers may date from the time when it was rebound. The
vellum leaf used to write the title page may have previously been an
endpaper, and there is another vellum leaf at the back, partly printed
(indicating the date & other details in French) and partly handwritten (in
French & Latin). Unfortunately, part of the text was cut away during the
binding, making it hard to decipher. There is also a library catalogue entry
on the second front free endpaper. It reads "846 si.zz 1878".

Those catalogue numbers might give a hint as to the earlier provenance of
the book, but darned if I know how to crack it!

BTW, this was my first attempt at creating some web pages about a book I
own, and it's badly in need of updating. I did it on Microsoft Publisher,
which converts the image files into bitmap files that cannot then be
reconverted into jpg files and compressed. It's all so long ago I no longer
have my original scans, so I'm going to have to take a whole new set of
digital images. With so many *other* things on my plate, I guess I'm not
going to get round to this for a while. Apologies to those who do not have a
broadband internet connection!

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com