Owners of Book of Hours, use of Rome, Northern France
From the library of James Boswell, with his ownership entry on the inside front cover: James Boswell. / London 1766, possibly purchased by him in Paris in that year. Boswell had arrived in Paris towards the end of January 1766, and left again for Scotland in late February or early March when he read in a copy of the St. James Chronicle that his mother had died thirteen days earlier. So it must have been during this brief stay in Paris that he purchased this ms. This information was kindly supplied by the late Boswell scholar Lady Mary Eccles (Nov. 1995). Boswell’s library was dispersed on May 24th,1825 but the Book of Hours remained in the possession of the Boswell and Malhide Family until it was consigned to Christie’s, London, by Joyce Lady Talbot de Malahide. A descendent of Boswell. It was purchased at Christie’s on 18 December 1959 by the American collector Norman Strouse, and was sold at the request of his heirs. It has not been on the market since 1959.
Source: John Windle, Antiquarian Book Seller (March 24, 2014).
Danielle Mihram, 2020.