|
Guide To Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library
HM 1137View all images for this manuscript BOOK OF HOURS, use of Besançon (?)
1. f. 1, blank; f. 1v: coat of arms (see below).
2. ff. 2-13v: Full calendar in French alternating red, blue and gold entries.
3. ff. 14-20v: Pericopes of the Gospels, that of John followed by the prayer, Protector in te sperancium…[Perdrizet, 25]; in the space at the end of Luke, in the hand of the scribe, a suffrage of Catherine of Alexandria; following straight on
after Matthew, the prayer, Anime omnium fidelium defunctorum…
4. ff. 21-24v: Short hours of the Cross.
5. ff. 25-27v: Short hours of the Holy Spirit.
6. ff. 28-70v: Hours of the Virgin, of undetermined use; the antiphons and capitula at prime and at none are: Ecce tu pulchra…; Ab inicio et ante secula…; Fons ortorum putens…; Quasi cedrus exaltata sum…; each hour ends with a prayer to John the Evangelist; Salve Regina…[RH 18147] follows compline.
7. ff. 71-85v: Penitential psalms and litany, including Haimo among the apostles and evangelists; Ferreolus, Ferrutius, Antidius, Irenaeus
and Maimbod among the martyrs; Columban, Walbert, Deicolus, Ermenfrid and “Lathene” (for Laichtein or Laidhgenn?) among the
confessors; Radegundis, Bridget and Sabina among the virgins.
8. ff. 86-109v: Office of the Dead, use of Besançon.
9. ff. 110-114v: Obsecro te…et michi famule tue…[Leroquais, LH 2:346]; O Intemerata…orbis terrarum de te enim…[Wilmart, 494-95].
10. f. 115: coat of arms (see below); f. 115v, ruled, but blank.
Parchment, ff. iii (modern paper) + i (contemporary parchment; once the pastedown) + 115 (of which f. 1 is a flyleaf) + ii (contemporary
parchment; f. ii once the pastedown); 216 × 165 (115 × 81) mm. 16(from f. 2) 26 3-148(through f. 109) 158(-6, 8).
16 long lines ruled in pale red ink. Written in a gothic book hand of varying size according to liturgical function.
Sixteen large illuminations above 3 lines of text within arched compartments by more than one artist; some of the miniatures
are based upon compositions of the Boucicaut Master. Borders in 2 styles, the division occurring after quire 3 between ff. 29-30: the first style includes figures in a rather
dense ivy leaf outer border, and a narrow U-shaped gold frame around text and miniature; in the second style, a thin gold
strip completely encloses the page; the outer border is somewhat more sparse and frequently includes a 180° sun-burst design
of thin colored lines emanating from a gold dot set against the edge of the border; a rather wide frame surrounds the text
and extends across the top until it meets the arch of the miniature. The miniatures are: f. 14 (Gospel of John), John on Patmos,
writing, as a trumpet issues from a golden cloud in the sky; in the border, a bird and a monkey playing a guitar; f. 16 (Luke),
the evangelist in an elaborate gothic chair against a tessellated background; in the border, a squirrel and a bird; f. 18
(Matthew), the evangelist below a vaulted gothic ceiling, against a tessellated background, and, in the border, an owl and
2-headed grotesque, the man-half playing a pipe and beating a drum; f. 20 (Mark), the seated evangelist under a gothic vaulted
ceiling and against a tessellated background; in the border an owl and a grotesque similar to the one above, but with the
monkey-half holding bagpipes; f. 21 (Hours of the Cross), Crucifixion with Mary and John on either side against a tessellated
background; in the border are a stork, another bird and a woman spinning; f. 25 (Hours of the Holy Spirit), Pentecost against
a tessellated background, and, in the border, a butterfly and two birds; f. 28 (Hours of the Virgin), Annunciation, against
a tessellated background, with a peacock and another bird in the border; f. 37 (Lauds), Visitation; f. 46 (Prime), Nativity,
with another woman kneeling in prayer; f. 50 (Terce), Annunciation to the shepherds; f. 53 (Sext), Adoration of the Magi;
f. 57 (None), Presentation in the temple, with the Baby reaching back to his Mother, seen through a solid grey archway; f.
61 (Vespers), Flight into Egypt; f. 67 (Compline), Coronation of the Virgin, in which the crowned Virgin kneels before Christ
who blesses her, against a tessellated background; f. 71 (Penitential psalms), David kneeling, gazing upwards at God the Father
who appears in the sky surrounded by orange cherubim; f. 86 (Office of the Dead), burial service in a courtyard with 3 priests,
blackdressed mourners and 2 men lowering the body into the grave; the border seems to be of the first type.
Band borders the length of the text in the outer margins traced through, with the same division in style as noted above; the
calendar with borders of the second type. 3-line initials in white-patterned blue or pink with colored trilobe leaf infilling
against a cusped gold ground; 2- and 1-line initials in gold with alternating pink or blue infilling and ground of the other
color; ribbon line fillers in the same colors; initials within the text touched in yellow. Rubrics in red, except on f. 23r-v
(conjunct with f. 28, with the Annunciation scene) where they are in blue and by a different hand.
Bound, s. XVII, in French red morocco; gilt edges, marbled endpapers and 2 later silver fore edge clasps, closing front to back, one lacking.
A diamond-shaped pattern of black-stained holes on the first and last flyleaves and 2 sets of 2 marks each on the outer margins
of these flyleaves suggest fore edge clasps and a center boss on an earlier binding.
Written during the first half of the fifteenth century perhaps for use in Besançon, to judge from the Office of the Dead, and the saints in the litany.
The arms of early owners on ff. 1v and 115 were identified by A. Van de Put, as those of Jacques d’Archiac, lord of Aveilles (on f. 1v) and of his wife, Louise d’Aumont (on f. 115): his arms, encircled by a laurel wreath, gules two pales vair a chief or; her arms, also encircled by a laurel wreath, per pale, I, gules one [for two] pales vair a chief or (Archiac; similar to Rietstap, vol. 1, pl. 62); II, quarterly of five (2 and 3): 1, argent a chevron gules between, in chief four and in base three, martlets gules (Aumont; see Rietstap, vol. 1, pl. 87); 2, ermine eight horseshoes in orle and a bordure gules (Ferrières; see Rietstap, vol. 2, pl. 317); 3, or three bars azure and a bordure gules; 4, azure two fishes or and seven crosses argent (3 and 4); 5, or a lion rampant
azure armed and langued gules. Belonged to Robert Hoe: Grolier Club (1892) n. 18; Cat. (1909) pp. 22-23; his sale, Anderson, New York, 1912, pt. IV, n. 2345 with plate of f. 53 to G. D. Smith.
Precise source and date of acquisition by Henry E. Huntington unknown.
Bibliography: De Ricci, 96. M. Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicaut Master (London—New York 1968) 140.France, s. XV1 Abbreviations
C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Copyright 1989.
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California. Electronic version encoded by Sharon K, Goetz, 2003. All rights to the cataloguing and images in Digital Scriptorium reside with the contributing institutions. |