Heures de Cour contenant les sept offices de la semaine. Les 7 pseaumes, Vespres, Hymns & Les Litan avec les Prieres du matin & du soir & les Oraisons devant et apres le Commun.

16mo. 256 printed pages in Latin and French. Fleur-de-Lys and scrolling foliate head and tail pieces. Two decorated initials, the rest capitalized. 18 lines to each page. 7 point (smallest readable size). Linen and cotton rag laid paper as used in the 17th century. Earliest Houghton Heures de Cour is from 1682. Welsh, 3440, lists the earliest known copy as 1678. The earliest in WorldCat is a single copy dated 1677 (University of Virginia). This unrecorded copy predates all editions I can find. Very few small spots of browning. Some corners slightly creased. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt (rather worn away). Two near contemporary inscriptions on front paste-down & recto of blank preliminary facing page. Provenance: "M. St. H. H. [St. Helens or St. Helier family, possibly]" and "Samuel Salter [Master of Charterhouse, (1710-1778)], Alumnus Suttonianus Dono dedit Richardus Clarke eiusdem Scholae Alumnus 1729". A gift from Clarke to Salter, both men went to London Charterhouse (formerly owned by Thomas Sutton). For Salter's biography, see: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Salter,_Samuel 32 x 53mm. Original cream sheepskin, with remnants of contemporary hand-painted decoration in green and red. Spine with three raised bands, a religious symbol in an oval border on front and back covers. Binding worn, leaving only fragmentary and feint decoration. Original headbands intact but binding as a whole rather sprung and resistant to being fully closed. Charles Coignard began a distinguished dynasty of booksellers and printers for the King and the Académie française in Paris. The preface to this book apologises for not being a grand edition but promotes its virtues as not only complete but also extremely small and portable. This is a Roman Catholic prayer, psalm and hymn book whereas Salter was Church of England. Not in Bondy, Spielmann nor Welsh. University of Virginia is the only library WorldCat locates this title and the copy cited is a later edition, OCLC, 310760906. WorldCat locates no copies worldwide of this earlier edition. Unrecorded, complete, in a contemporary binding and with a fine association and provenance, this beautiful & early miniature book is unique and sought after.