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Guide To Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library
HM 1154View all images for this manuscript BOOK OF HOURS, use of Paris
1. ff. 1-12v: Full calendar in French with major feasts in red, generally similar to that printed by Perdrizet; includes Charlemagne (28 January).
2. ff. 13-22: Pericopes of the Gospels, that of John followed by the prayer, Protector in te sperantium…[Perdrizet, 25]; Oratio de beata maria, Obsecro te…[masculine forms; Leroquais, LH 2:346]; f. 22v, ruled, but blank.
3. ff. 23-66v: Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris; the prayer, Ecclesiam tuam quesumus domine benignus…follows by cue all hours after and excepting lauds, where it is written in full; ff. 67-68v, ruled, but blank.
4. ff. 69-86: Penitential psalms and litany, including Denis, Maurice, Eustachius, Eutropius and Quentin among the martyrs; Charles, Remigius,
Marcellus, Eligius, Aegidius, Julianus, Maurus and Lubin among the confessors; Genevieve among the virgins.
5. ff. 86v-89v: Short hours of the Cross.
6. ff. 90-92v: Short hours of the Holy Spirit.
7. ff. 93-121: Office of the Dead, use of Paris.
8. ff. 121-135: Prayers as follow: Doulce dame de misericorde…[Leroquais, LH 2:310-11]; Doulx dieulx doulx pere saincte trinite…[Leroquais, LH 2:309-10]; Saincte vraye croix aoree…[Sonet 1876]; suffrages of Michael, John the Baptist, James the Greater, Christopher, Sebastian, Nicholas, Anthony abbot, Catherine of
Alexandria, Margaret, Barbara; ff. 135v-136v, ruled, but blank.
Parchment, ff. i (parchment) + 136 + i (parchment); 148 × 103 (90 × 57) mm. 1-26 3-98(through f. 68) 10-128(through f. 92) 13-178 186(-5, 6).
Catchwords have occasionally survived cropping and appear in the script of the text in the center lower margin. 16 long lines, ruled in pale red ink. Written in a gothic book hand.
Five large miniatures, simply done, above 4 lines of text, enclosed by a narrow gold frame on 2 sides and with a small amount
of gold tracery at the top; the outer borders with compartmentalized divisions of natural parchment or painted gold grounds,
both with blue and gold acanthus leaves and colored flowers. The miniatures are: f. 23 (Hours of the Virgin), Annunciation;
f. 69 (Penitential psalms), David, supporting his harp with one hand, and kneeling in prayer, while God the Father appears
in a blue-rimmed yellow aperture in the sky; f. 86v (Hours of the Cross), Crucifixion with Mary and John on either side; f.
90 (Hours of the Holy Spirit), Pentecost; f. 93 (Office of the Dead), burial scene in a churchyard, with the corpse being
lowered into the grave by a young man, while mourners and priests look on. Seven smaller miniatures, 50 × 38 mm., possibly
by a different artist, enclosed in frames of simple gold arches, with bracket borders set to the left of the text consisting
of a gold and color strip along the text, and acanthus leaves and flowers. The miniatures are: f. 33 (Lauds), Visitation;
f. 43 (Prime), Nativity, with the Baby lying on an extension of the Virgin’s robe; f. 47v (Terce), 33 × 33 mm., Annunciation
to the shepherds; f. 51 (Sext), Adoration of the Magi; f. 54 (None), Presentation in the temple; f. 57 (Vespers), Flight into
Egypt; f. 62v (Compline), Coronation of the Virgin, who kneels before Christ, with blue swirling clouds at the lower right
corner.
3-line initials in white-patterned blue on gold grounds with colored trilobe leaf infilling; 2- and 1-line initials in gold
on dark pink grounds with blue infilling or vice versa; ribbon line fillers in the same colors; initials within the text touched
in yellow. Rubrics in dark pink.
Bound, s. XVI, in French calf with gold tooling and the name “Marie” (front cover) “De Rebergues” (back cover); 2 sets of holes on the
edges of the front and back covers from fore edge clasps; other holes on both covers from central bosses; gilt edges.
Written for use in Paris in the second half of the fifteenth century.
Names of early owners on the back pastedown: Manon dargilliere, francoise dargilliere. A sixteenth century owner was apparently Marie de Rebergues, whose name is stamped on the cover. A cancelled note on f. i identifies a seventeenth century owner as Anne Sa<?> Gaultier of Clermont, who obtained the book from her great-grandmother. Belonged to James Dix of Bristol; his sale, Sotheby’s, 11 February 1870, lot 257 to Stevens. In the collection of E. Dwight Church (1835-1908); see his Catalogue…of English Literature (1909) vol. 1, n. 406 with a plate of f. 93.
The Church collection was acquired by Henry E. Huntington in 1911.
Bibliography: De Ricci, 99.France, s. XV2 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. |