Hours: MS 152

Titles

Hours

Entities

• Book of hours
• Use of Rome

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, ii parchment flyleaves (first leaf glued onto paper flyleaf) + 143 fols. + ii parchment flyleaves (last leaf glued onto paper flyleaf), 110 x 73 mm (57 x 40 mm), 18-19 long lines, ruled in brown ink, catchwords

BINDING: Sixteenth-century, brown leather over pasteboards, sewn on three supports, rope-curl and gilt foliate tooling (central panels only), surrounded by gold-tooled red leather, edges gilt and gauffered, spine re-backed in France, c.1800.

CONTENTS:
fols. 1r–12v Calendar
fols. 14r–47v Hours of the Virgin
fols. 47v–50r Psalms for Tuesday and Thursday
fols. 50v–53r Psalms for Wednesday and Saturday
fols. 53r–57v Psalms for Saturday before the first Sunday in Advent
fols. 58r–59v Hours of the Holy Spirit
fols. 60r–71v Penitential Psalms and Litany
fols. 71v–74v Short Hours of the Cross (begin imperfectly)
fols. 75r–99r Office of the Dead
fols. 100r–116v Psalter of St Jerome
fols. 116v–120r Quicumque vult and Te Deum
fols. 120r–128r Gospel Sequences
fols. 128r–139v The Passion according to St Matthew
fols. 140r–143v Prayer attributed to St Augustine, Dulcissime domine Jhesu

DECORATION: Three full-page miniatures within laurel frames and thirty-one frieze–like miniatures within identical frames in the lower borders, with white vine-scroll borders inhabited by putti and grotesques within gold frames: fol. 13v Hours of the Virgin, Matins, Virgin and Child enthroned, the Child holding a bird and sucking his thumb, two angels holding the cloth of gold, in the borders, the angel appears to Joachim in the field (lower border), and arms of Feretti of Ancona (outer border); fol. 20v Lauds, in border Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple; fol. 28r Prime, in border Marriage of the Virgin and Joseph, suitors breaking their rods; fol. 33v Sext, in border Visitation and angel within roundel; fol. 36r None, in border Adoration of the Child and angel within roundel; fol. 44r Compline, in border Circumcision; fol. 47v Ps. 44, in border Adoration of the Magi and the star within roundel; fol. 50v Ps. 95, in border Flight to Egypt and angel praying within roundel; fol. 53r, in border Massacre of the Innocents and angel within roundel; fol. 59v Penitential Psalms, in border David defeating Goliath; fol. 75r Office of the Dead, Vespers, in border People gathered around tomb; fol. 80v Matins, Funeral in front of domed church, priest sprinkling corpse on bed with holy water, priest singing behind, in border three men digging grave and cherubs; fol. 99v Psalter of St Jerome, Penitent St Jerome in front of Crucifix in desert, accompanied by his lion, cardinal’s hat and books on ground, in border St Jerome doctoring the lion’s paw; fol. 100r Psalter of St Jerome, in border St Jerome in study teaching three monks; fol. 102r Prayer before reciting the Psalms, Deus altissimus, in border God in glory borne by angels and adored by six people in landscape; fol. 102v Prayer, Creator celi, in border Creation of Eve, two angels and sun within roundel; fol. 106r Ps. 1, in border God in glory borne by angels and four people kneeling with open books; fol. 109v Ps. 50, in border Resurrection and angel praying within roundel; fol. 113v Ps. 101, in border Man scourging himself before Christ on the Cross, two angels observing.

Seven historiated initials in graded pink or blue, with acanthus on gold ground, accompanied by foliate borders including putti, vases, hybrids and small frieze-like miniatures in lower border: fol. 14r Hours of the Virgin, Matins, [O, 10 ll.] Kiss of Joachim and Anna, in border Birth of the Virgin; fol. 31r Terce, [D, 6 ll.] God blessing and holding open book, in border Annunciation in a garden; fol. 39r Vespers, [D, 9 ll.] Altar with chalice, [D, 5 ll.] Angel, in border Presentation in the Temple; fol. 58r Hours of the Holy Spirit, [D, 7 ll.] Dove of the Holy Ghost, in border Pentecost; fol. 60r Penitential Psalms, [D, 7 ll.] David playing psaltery, in border David praying in pit and two angels; fol. 81r Office of the Dead, Matins, [V, 8 ll.] Death holding scythe, in border Death on horseback holding scythe and approaching two men hawking, two dead men beside.

ORNAMENTATION: Graded pink or blue initials [3-8 ll.] with acanthus motifs, blue, green, red or white vine-scroll infill on gold grounds, and white full or partial vine-scroll or floral borders; alternate red and blue one-line penwork initials; alternate blue and red paragraph marks; capitals highlighted in yellow; catchwords decorated with simple pen-flourishing in red and blue, or housed within concentric gold and laurel roundels where they coincide with a page that has border decoration.

Notes

History note: Made for Leonardo Ferretti of Ancona (arms of Feretti of Ancona on fol. 13v and patron’s name in prayer on fol. 140v, dignare domine me famulum tuum Leonardum); Richard, seventh Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (1745–1816), acquired in 1812; his bequest, 1816.