Book of Hours: MS 1055-1975

Titles

Book of Hours

Maker(s)

Artists: Masters of the Gold Scrolls

Entities

• Book of hours
• Use of Sarum

Categories

• Iluminated manuscript
• Manuscript

Description

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, i parchment flyleaf + 118 fols. + i parchment flyleaf, 303 x 220 (158 x 104) mm, 21 long lines, ruled in pink ink, leaves lost between fols. 11 – 12, 13 – 14, 17 – 18, 27 – 28, 29 – 30, 35 – 36, outer border of fol. 7 cut out.

BINDING: nineteenth century, red velvet over pasteboard, edges gilt and painted with green and red foliate motifs.

CONTENTS: fols. 1r – 6v Calendar; fols. 7r – 11v Fifteen Oes; fol. 12r – v Fragment from liturgical service, probably Hours of the Trinity; fol. 13r Commemoration of St Barbara (starts and ends imperfectly); fols. 14r – 38r Hours of the Virgin interspersed with Hours of the Cross (starts imperfectly); fol. 38r – v Salve Regina; fols. 39r – 42v Salve virgo virginum and other Marian prayers
fols. 42v – 44r O Intemerata; fols. 44r – 46r Obsecro te; fols. 46r – 49r Seven Joys of the Virgin; fols. 49v – 52r Omnibus consideratis, prayers to the Cross and Five Wounds; fols. 52r – 52v Prayers to the Virgin and St John; fols. 53r – 55v Bede’s Prayer on the Seven Last Words, and other Christocentric devotions; fols. 57r – 62v Penitential Psalms; fols. 62v – 66v Gradual Psalms
fols. 66v – 71v Litany; fols. 72r – 93r Office of the Dead; fols. 93v – 102v Commendation of the Soul; fols. 103r – 110r Psalms of the Passion; fols. 110r – 118v Psalter of St Jerome, with rubricated indulgence crossed out (starts imperfectly).

DECORATION: Six large framed miniatures with three-sided gold, blue and pink bar borders and full acanthus and floral borders including hybrids and grotesques for main text divisions:
fol. 46v Seven Joys of the Virgin, Christ displaying wounds, two angles holding up cloth covered in Y A; fol. 49v Omnibus consideratis, Crucifixion, with Virgin and St John; fol. 57r Penitential Psalms, Last Judgement, with Christ flanked by angels, dead rising, and Hellmouth below; fol. 72r Office of the Dead, Funeral service, grave-diggers and mourner-grotesque in border; fol. 93v Commendation of the Soul, Souls borne to God by angels; fol. 103r Psalms of the Passion, Man of Sorrows surrounded by Instruments of the Passion, sorrowing angels in border.

Fourteen small framed miniatures inset in text-block with partial gold, blue and pink bar borders, and acanthus, floral and spraywork borders:
fol. 27r Hours of the Cross, Prime, Christ before Pilate; fol. 29r Terce, Flagellation; fol. 32v Sext, Crucifixion with Virgin and St John; fol. 35r None, Deposition; fol. 37v Vespers, Entombment; fol. 50r Prayer to the Cross, Cross with label INRI and Prayer to the Head of Christ, Sorrowing head of Christ with Crown of Thorns; fol. 50v Prayers to the Five Wounds, Wounded right hand; fol. 51r Wounded left hand and Cloth with Wound held by hands from heaven; fol. 51v Wounded right foot and Wounded left foot; fol. 52r Prayers to the Virgin and St John, Pieta and St John.

ORNAMENTATION: Blue or pink white-patterned initials [5 ll.] with foliate or geometric infill on gold grounds for main text divisions; gold initials [2 – 3 ll.] on blue and dark pink white-patterned grounds; alternate gold and blue one-line initials with black or red pen-flourishing; gold and blue geometric line-fillers.

Notes

History note: A. Rousset, Lyons (bookplate with his monogram A/R/LUG inside upper cover); sold in Paris, Hotel Drouot, 17 June 1960, lot 9; purchased by Henry Davis (1897 – 1977); his gift, 1975.