Book of Hours: MS 157

Titles

Book of Hours

Maker(s)

Scribe: Albrecht of Breslau

Entities

• Book of hours
• Liturgical use: Dominican use

Categories

• Illuminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, ii paper flyleaves + 174 fols. + ii paper flyleaves, 83 x 65 (54 x 40) mm, 15 long lines, ruled in black ink and plummet, silk curtains bound between fols. 62v – 63r, 109v – 110r, 132v – 133r, 149v – 150r, 152v – 153r.

BINDING: 19th century, green leather over pasteboards, metal clasp closing back to front, edges gilt and gauffered.

CONTENTS: fols. 1r – 61v Hours of the Virgin, with Memoriae at Lauds; fols. 63r – 109r Office of the Dead; fols. 110r – 133r Penitential Psalms and Litany with collects; fols. 133v – 135v Gradual Psalms interspersed with prayers, including two from the funeral service with male and female forms, and two sets of versicles provided with German rubrics and used in the context of extreme unction (fols. 135r – 135v); fols. 136r – 149r Office of Compline; fols. 150r – 152r Sequence Ave virgo stella; fol. 152r – 152v Sequence Rector celi; fols. 153r – 155r Christ’s Seven Words on the Cross; fols. 155v – 156r Eight verses of St Bernard; fol. 156v Prayer Omnipotens sempiterne deus; fols. 157r – 158r Prayer of St Augustine, Gratias tibi ago domine; fols. 158v – 161v Two prayers in German, O du aller and O du brunn; fols. 162v – 165r Prayers to the Holy Face in German; fols. 165v – 166v Gospel Sequence of St John; fols. 166v – 167v Hymn Veni creator spiritus; fols. 168r – 171v Suffrages, including one each for the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Sts Magdalene, Paul, Thomas and Barbara
fols. 171v – 172v Prayers of the Confraternity of St Catherine’s, the Dominican convent in Augsburg; fol. 173r Hec est dies; fols. 173v – 174r Memoria for the Holy Face (addition).

DECORATION: Five full-page framed miniatures (except fol. 152v, large miniature with two lines of text above it), with full acanthus and floral borders on plain parchment grounds at major text divisions: fol. 62v Office of the Dead, St John on Patmos, with eagle and vision of Virgin and Child clothed in the Sun and standing on Crescent Moon; fol. 109v Penitential Psalms, St Paul falling from horse amidst rain of stones; fol. 149v Sequence Ave virgo stella, Doubting Thomas; fol. 152v Christ’s Seven Words on the Cross, Crucifixion with Virgin, St John, St Dominic and dog; fol. 162r Prayers to the Holy Face, St Veronica with Vernicle.

Three small framed bas-de-page miniatures with partial acanthus and floral borders for Memoriae at Lauds and prayer: fol. 23v Martyrdom of St Catherine; fol. 29v Martyrdom of St Dorothy, Christ Child with basket of flowers; fol. 133r Collect Miserere que sumus, Carrying of the Cross, St Veronica with Vernicle.

Two historiated initials in shaded blue acanthus design on gold grounds with full (fol. 1r) and one-sided (fol. 63r) acanthus and floral borders:
fol. 1r Hours of the Virgin, [A, 8 ll.] St Anne with Virgin and Child, in border angel holding arms of Welser family; fol. 63r Office of the Dead, [O, 6 ll.] souls praying in Purgatory, two angels above.

ORNAMENTATION: Blue, green or magenta initials [3 – 6 ll.] with shaded acanthus design on gold grounds and full or partial acanthus and floral borders including animals, birds, grotesques and figures related to the text, e.g. St Mary Magdalene with ointment jar (fol. 110r), holy virgin (fol. 122v), St Barbara with chalice and wafer (fol. 171r); alternate red and blue penwork initials [3 – 5 ll.] with occasional foliage extensions or reserved ornament; alternate red and blue one-line penwork initials; capitals highlighted in red; cadels in lower margins.

Notes

History note: Completed in 1501 for Veronica Welser, Dominican nun at the convent of St Catherine’s, Augsburg (colophon on fol. 172v, arms of Welser family on fol. 1r); stated to have been in the Hamilton Collection (James 1895, 353), but not identified in the catalogue of the collection of Alexander Douglas Hamilton (1767 – 1852), tenth Duke of Hamilton, privately printed by Sotheby’s in 1882 or in that prepared when the Prussian State re-sold the collection via Trübner, Strasbourg, at Sotheby’s, London, 23 May 1889; purchased by Samuel Sandars (1837 – 1894); his gift to the Museum, 1892.