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Guide To Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library
HM 1168View all images for this manuscript BOOK OF HOURS, use of Paris
1. ff. 1-6v: Full calendar alternating red and blue entries with major feasts in gold, indicating generally the north of France.
2. ff. 7-28v: Pericopes of the Gospels, that of John followed by the prayer, Protector in te sperantium…[Perdrizet, 25]; Passion according to John; Obsecro te…[masculine forms; Leroquais, LH 2:346]; O Intemerata…orbis terrarum. Inclina mater…[Wilmart, 488-90].
3. ff. 29-88v: Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris; 3 sets of 3 psalms and lessons at matins without intermediary rubrics; the prayer, Ecclesiam tuam quesumus domine…, completes all hours, lauds to compline.
4. ff. 89-96: Short hours of the Cross.
5. ff. 96v-101v: Short hours of the Holy Spirit.
6. ff. 102-118: Penitential psalms and litany including Martialis as the last apostle; Denis, Maurice, Eustachius, Eutropius and Quentin
among the martyrs; Remigius, Marcellus, Eligius, Aegidius, Julianus, Maurus and Lubin among the confessors; Genevieve among
the virgins.
7. ff. 118v-160v: Office of the Dead, use of Paris.
8. ff. 161-170v: Suffrages of Michael, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Paul, Lawrence, Eustachius, Fiacre, Nicholas, Claude,
Anthony abbot, Maurus, Mary Magdalene, Catherine of Alexandria, Margaret, Genevieve.
Parchment, ff. i (contemporary parchment) + 170 + i (parchment); 188 × 129 (104 × 63) mm. 16 2-38 46(through f. 28) 5-68 7-84 92 104 11-138 146(through f. 88) 15-198 206 218(-8, cancelled by the scribe) 22-238 246 258(+9, f. 170).
Catchwords in center lower margin in script of text. 18 long lines, ruled in pale red ink. Written in 2 sizes of a rather round gothic script, but with a humanistic sense of spacing.
Thirteen large miniatures above 4 lines of text, usually framed by colored columns and with gold tracery at the top of the
arch; a decorated gold U-frame, narrow in the inner margin, encloses both text and miniature; the outer border composed of
compartments with blue and gold acanthus on a natural ground, or with flowers on a painted gold ground; many grotesques. The
miniatures are: f. 13 (Passion according to John), above 3 lines of text, Betrayal in the garden with Judas kissing Christ
in the middle ground, and Peter about to strike Malchus in the foreground; f. 29 (Hours of the Virgin), Annunciation by a
more capable artist than that of the other illuminations in this book, with figures in somewhat larger scale; this leaf does
not have the columns and traceried arch or the U-shape frame; f. 49 (Lauds), Visitation, with 2 angels behind the Virgin; f. 59 (Prime), Nativity; f. 64v (Terce),
Annunciation to 2 shepherds and a shepherdess; f. 69 (Sext), Adoration of the Magi; f. 73 (None), Presentation in the temple,
Joseph not present; f. 77 (Vespers), Massacre of the Innocents, with one dead baby on the floor and a mother showing another
one to Herod who crosses his arms over his chest; a soldier in the background killing a child; f. 83v (Compline), Coronation
of the Virgin by Jesus, who holds an orb and blesses Mary as she is crowned by an angel, while other angels watch from behind
a low gothic wall; blue clouds swirl at Jesus’ and Mary’s feet; f. 89 (Hours of the Cross), Crucifixion with Mary, John and
others to Christ’s right, and the soldiers to his left; the border entirely of painted gold, with multicolored acanthus leaves
and a frog on a green base across the bottom; f. 96v (Hours of the Holy Spirit), Pentecost, with the Dove sending bright orange-red
tongues of flame upon the apostles; f. 102 (Penitential psalms), David from a loggia looks down at Bathsheba bathing; f. 118v
(Office of the Dead), Job on the dunghill. The smaller miniatures, in narrow rectangles, enclosed by colored columns and gold
tracery at the top, with compartmentalized ¾ bracket borders which leave the inner margin empty, are: f. 7 (Gospel of John),
10-line, John on Patmos, with the eagle holding his ink well, full border; f. 8v, 11-line, Luke studying; f. 10, 10-line,
Matthew with the angel holding his ink well; f. 12, 9-line, Mark; f. 23 (Obsecro te), 8-line, the Virgin nursing the Child,
with orange angels on either side; f. 26v (O Intemerata), 9-line, Pietà; f. 161, 8-line, Michael vanquishing the devil; f.
161v, 10-line, John the Baptist pointing to the Agnus Dei which he holds on his draped hand; f. 162, 9-line, John the Evangelist
holding the snaky chalice; f. 162v, 9-line, Peter and Paul; f. 163v, 9-line, Lawrence; f. 164, 9-line, Eustachius standing
in the middle of the Nile, while the lion on one bank and the wolf on the other take his children away; f. 164v, 9-line, Fiacre
dressed as a monk, holding his shovel and a book; f. 165, 9-line, Nicholas with the pickled infants; f. 165v, 10-line, Claude;
f. 167, 10-line, Anthony abbot; f. 167v, 8-line, Maurus in a Benedictine’s habit, holding his abbot’s crozier; f. 168, 8-line,
Mary Magdalene; f. 169, 8-line, Catherine of Alexandria triumphing over the emperor Maxentius; f. 169v, 9-line, Margaret;
f. 170, 8-line, Genevieve with the angel lighting her candle as the devil tries to put it out.
The calendar, with bracket borders, contains illustrations of the monthly occupation in the outer border and of the sign of
the zodiac in the lower. 3-and most 2-line initials in white-patterned blue on burnished gold grounds with colored trilobe
infilling; the 3-line initial on f. 29 (Hours of the Virgin) of white-shaded acanthus leaves on a dark blue initial set against
a maroon ground decorated with gold-shaded acanthus leaves. The 2-line initials in quires 17 (ff. 105-112v), 19 (ff. 119-216v)
and on ff. 141-144v (2 bifolia) and on f. 153v are in white-patterned blue or dark pink with naturalistic flowers set on painted
gold infillings; 1-line initials in painted gold on brown, maroon or blue grounds; ribbon line fillers in the same colors
or as gold-lighted logs. Rubrics in blue. Traced borders in the outer margin of every page, running the length of the text,
usually compartmentalized, but occasionally entirely of painted gold backgrounds; the borders often contain grotesques.
Bound, s. XVIex, in French gilt calf; evidence of 2 fore edge clasps; gilt edges.
Written in France during the first half of the sixteenth century.
An inscription on the front pastedown shows the manuscript to have belonged to J. G. Smyth, clerk, of St. Gregory’s, Norwich in 1790, and to have been given by him on 3 August 1830 to Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), in whose library it bore the shelf mark, VI.H.h.8 (not in the Bibliotheca Sussexiana, London 1827, because of the late date of acquisition); sale of the Duke of Sussex, Evans, London, 1844, pt. II, n. 188 to Thorpe. Belonged to Robert Hoe: Grolier Club (1892) n. 20; Cat. (1909) pp. 42-43; his sale, Anderson, New York, 1912, pt. III, n. 2073 to G. D. Smith.
Precise source and date of acquisition by Henry E. Huntington unknown.
Bibliography: De Ricci, 102.France, s. XVI1 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. |