Walters Ms. W.104, Book of Hours

W.104

Book of Hours

Book of Hours

This Book of Hours was created in northeastern France ca. 1340, possibly for the marriage that year of Louis II of Châtillon (d. 1346) and Jeanne of Hainaut, as the Châtillon de Blois arms are depicted on fols. 19r and 81v, and the arms of Hainaut also appear in the borders, including in conjunction with the Châtillon arms on fol. 19r. The manuscript is exceptional for the abundance of drolleries and lively hybrids that inhabit nearly every page. Stylistically these images have been linked to a workshop in the Artois region, possibly based in Arras, and related manuscripts were traced by Carl Nordenfalk in his 1979 publication. Although the manuscript is incomplete, lacking its calendar and likely some images, its surviving illumination provides an excellent example of the playfulness of art during this period.

Ca. 1340 CE

Northeast France

Book

Devotional

The primary language in this manuscript is Latin. The secondary language of this manuscript is French, Old (842-ca.1400).

Parchment

Very well prepared and highly selected, thin to medium parchment

Foliation: i+113+i

Two sets of pencil foliation, the earlier added in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, lower right, rectos; more recent pencil foliation upper right corners, rectos (used here)

Formula: Quire 1: 8, lacking first folio, with another first folio added early (fols. 1-8); Quires 2-4: 8 (fols. 9-32); Quire 5: 8, lacking third and sixth folios (fols. 33-38); Quire 6: 8 (fols. 39-46); Quire 7: 4 (fols. 47-50); Quire 8: 6, with first folio cancelled (fols. 51-55); Quires 9-15: 8, with Quire 11 misbound (fols. 56-111); Quire 16: 2, added in sixteenth century (fols. 112-113)

Catchwords: None

Signatures: None

Comments:

11.8 cm wide by 16.8 cm high

6.3 cm wide by 11.0 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 18
3. Ruled in brown ink

fols. 1r - 113v:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Contents: Manuscript is incomplete, lacking calendar and beginning of Hours of the Virgin, as well as several other folios throughout; first folio with miniatures and last two folios added early
3. Hand note: Written in textura formata; three artists' hands distinguishable: highest-quality images by first artist on fols. 51r and 81v; secondary artist responsible for historiated initials in Hours of the Virgin; third less skilled artist responsible for remaining miniatures
4. Decoration note: Eight miniatures (two full-page, added early); five extant historiated initials set within heavy gold architectural frames (10-13 lines), drolleries and grotesques throughout; decorated illuminated initials at secondary text divisions (2 lines) and at versals (1 line); borders around text and line fillers found intermittently throughout, with line fillers containing hybrids, dragons, fish, animals, and foliage; rubrics in red; text in black ink

fols. 1r - 49v:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Incipit: ...Dominus tecum
3. Contents: Incomplete: begins imperfectly within Lesson 1 of Matins, with other folios missing as well; 9-lesson in Matins for Use of Paris with exception of hymn "Quem terra" which is Use of Arras; Lauds through None and Compline for Use of Arras; Vespers capitulary "Beata es virgo" and antiphon "Beatam me" for Use of Paris; first folios of Sext and None missing after fols. 34 and 36; rubrics in French beginning at Lauds
4. Decoration note: Two full-page miniatures on fol. 1r-v, added early; historiated initials on fols. 19r, 28r, 32v, 39v, and 45v

fols. 51r - 60v:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms
2. Contents: No opening rubric; subsequent rubrics in French
3. Decoration note: Small miniature fol. 51r

fols. 61r - 70v:

1. Title: Fifteen gradual psalms, and prayers
2. Rubric: Les .XV. siaumes. (fol. 60v)
3. Incipit: Ad Dominum cum tribularer clamavi et exaudivit me
4. Contents: Rubric is on fol. 60v; beginning of incipit is in red and written within the bottom of the miniature's frame; fols. 61r-69r: Fifteen gradual psalms; fols. 69r-70v: six prayers, rubricated in French and Latin
5. Decoration note: Small miniatures on fols. 61r and 70v

fols. 71r - 73v; 75r - 75v:

1. Title: Litany, petitions, and collects
2. Incipit: Kyrieleyson
3. Contents: Partially misbound; fols. 71r-73r: Litany: fourteen martyrs, including Marcellus, Leodegar, Dionysius, and Maurice; nine confessors, including Remigius, Gregory, Audoenus, Julian, Aegydius, and Sulpitius; fourteen virgins including Catherine, Margaret, and Juliana; fols. 73r-v and 75r (misbound): Petitions; fol. 75r-v: two collects (rubric for first at bottom of fol. 75r)
4. Decoration note: Small miniature on fol. 71r

fols. 74r - 74v; 76r - 112r:

1. Title: Office of the Dead
2. Rubric: Vigile des mors. Antene. Siaume.
3. Incipit: Placebo domino
4. Contents: Misbound: correct order as follows: fols. 74r-v, 77r-v, 76r-v, 78r-112r; original text ends imperfectly on fol. 111v, and finished on added folio 112r in sixteenth-century hand; Office is for Use of Paris with exception of Lesson IV, which opens for Arras Use with "Responde michi," but with responsory, "Ne recordis," for Paris Use; rubrics in French for Vespers (fol. 74r) and Matins (fol. 81v)
5. Decoration note: Small miniatures on fols. 74r and 81v

fols. 112r - 113r:

1. Title: Prayer and eight imprecations (added)
2. Incipit: Ave verum corpus natum ex marie virgine
3. Contents: Folios added in sixteenth century; fol. 112r: Ave verum corpus; fols. 112v-113r: eight short imprecations
4. Hand note: Two different sixteenth-century hands

fol. 1r:

1. 
2. Title: Crucifixion with the Virgin and John
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Comment:

   Added early

fol. 1v:

1. 
2. Title: Virgin and Theophilus
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Comment:

   Added early

fol. 19r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with the Annunciation; drolleries and jousting knights in margins
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 10 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Lauds
5. Comment:

   Knights jousting carry shields bearing heraldry of Châtillon de Blois and Hainaut (or Flanders). Heraldic imagery of Châtillon de Blois, Hainaut (Flanders), Namur, and Vinacourt also in borders.

fol. 28r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with the Visitation; drolleries with apes, hybrid musicians, and doctor with matula (for uroscopy) in margins
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 10 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Prime

fol. 32v:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with the Nativity; hybrids, angel musicians, and doctor with matula in margins
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 10 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Terce

fol. 39v:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with the Presentation in the Temple; musicians, hybrids, and stag hunt in margins
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 10 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Vespers

fol. 45v:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "C" with the Massacre of the Innocents; heraldry of Hainaut or Flanders, musicians, apes, and children playing game in margins
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 13 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Compline

fol. 51r:

1. 
2. Title: Three kings playing music; hybrid musicians and men holding scrolls in margins
3. Form: Small miniature, 10 lines
4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms

fol. 61r:

1. 
2. Title: King David kneeling before Christ; hybrids and musicians in margins
3. Form: Small miniature, 10 lines
4. Text: Fifteen gradual psalms

fol. 70v:

1. 
2. Title: Virgin and Child enthroned with angels; hybrids, angels, and seraphim in margins
3. Form: Small miniature, 7 lines
4. Text: Fifteen gradual psalms

fol. 71r:

1. 
2. Title: Three clerics singing before lectern; hybrids and SS. Andrew, Bartholomew, Peter, and John the Baptist in margins
3. Form: Small miniature, 7 lines
4. Text: Litany

fol. 74r:

1. 
2. Title: Funeral service; Franciscan and Dominican monks and nuns (both hybrid and human) holding books in margins
3. Form: Small miniature, 10 lines
4. Text: Office of the Dead

fol. 81v:

1. 
2. Title: King David and Christ; jousting knights bearing arms of Namur and Châtillon, hybrids, and clerics in margins
3. Form: Small miniature, 10 lines
4. Text: Office of the Dead

The binding is not original.

French seventeenth-century brown calf decorated on sides with oval wreathes on both boards and gilt fillets at the edges; edges regilt; spine with four compartments containing gilt floral and foliate motif; nineteenth- or early twentieth-century brown case decorated with gilt fleurs-de-lis on upper cover and gilt inscription: "livre / d'heures / de / Marie de Hainaut / et de / Louis de Chastillon / 1300-1310"

Created ca. 1340 for Use of Arras and Paris, possibly for the marriage that year of Louis II of Châtillon (d. 1346) and Jeanne of Hainaut, as the Châtillon de Blois arms are depicted on fols. 19r and 81v, and the arms of Hainaut also appear in the borders, including in conjunction with the Châtillon arms on fol. 19r (see Randall 1997, cat. no. 55, p. 144 for further explanation)

Heraldic bookplate of unidentified owner added ca. 1600 at time of rebinding, with rampant lion on blue shield flanked by larger lions (Randall's description: "d'azur au lion d'or accompagnant trois boulettes de sable")

Motto "En espoyr vi" inscribed on fol. 113r, added presumably along with text in sixteenth century by unknown owner

Inscribed by later owner "au L Fr. Pri por nous P. Pinay (?)" above sketches of doe and stag

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from unknown source between 1895 and 1931

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

Owens, M.B. "Musical Subjects in the Illumination of Books of Hours from Fifteenth-Century France and Flanders." Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1987; pp. 380-382 (figs. 5, 6).

Verdier, P. "Woman in the Marginalia of Gothic Manuscripts and Related Works." In The Role of Women in the Middle Ages, edited by R. T. Morewedge, 123-133. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975 (fig. 10).

Randall, Lillian M.C. Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966; p. 38 and passim (figs. II, 123).

Lane, Barbara Greenhouse. "The Development of the Medieval Devotional Figure." Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1971; p. 175, fig. 197.

Nordenfalk, C. Bokmålningar från medeltid och renässans i Nationalmusei samlingar. Stockholm, 1979; referenced under no. 13, fig. 212.

De Ricci, Seymour, and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 784, cat. no. 172.

Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life, exhibition catalogue. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1988; cat. no. 8, fig 72.

Lewis, Suzanne. Beyond the Frame: Marginal Figures and Historiated Initials in the Getty Apocalypse. The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 20 (1992): 53-76; pp. 75-76 (n. 16 for p. 63).

Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 1, France, 875-1420. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 142-145, cat. no. 55.

De Beaumanoir, Philippe. Le Roman de la Manekine. Amsterdam: Rodopi Publishers, 1999; pp. xvi-xvii (figs. 48-49), 32-34, 37.

Smeyers, Mauritius. Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century: The Medieval World on Parchment. Turnhout: Brepols, 1999; pp. 125-127 (fig. 21), 172.

Bennett, Adelaide. "Continuity and Change in the Religious Book Culture of the Lowlands in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries." In Medieval Mastery: Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bold (800-1475), edited by William Noel and Lee Preedy, 167-179. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002; p. 178.

Caviness, Madeline H. Reframing Medieval Art: Difference, Margins, Boundaries. Medford, MA: Tufts University Press, 2001. Electronic book. http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/caviness/abstract.html; chapter 3.

Nevins, Teresa. "Psalter--Book of Hours." In Medieval Mastery: Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bold (800-1475), edited by William Noel and Lee Preedy. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002; pp. 226-227, cat. no. 49.

Noel, William. "Books in the Home: Psalters and Books of Hours." In Medieval Mastery: Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bold (800-1475), edited by William Noel and Lee Preedy, 57-67. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002; pp. 62, 63 (fig. 10).

Bütner, F.O. "Form and History: Der illuminierte Psalter im Westen." In The Illuminated Psalter, edited by F.O. Bütner, 1-106. Turnhout: Brepols, 2004; p. 39 (n. 3).

Mellinkoff, Ruth. Averting Demons. Los Angeles: Ruth Mellinkoff Publications, 2004; p. 84 (fig. II.36).

Lermer, Andrea. Der gotische "Dogenpalaste" in Venedig. Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2005; p. 344, no. 91, fig. 28.

Snyder, Susan, and Deborah T. Curren-Aquino (eds.). The Winter's Tale. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 4.

Logemann, Cornelia. Heilige Ordnungen: Die Bild-Räume der "Vie de Saint Denis" (1317) und die französische Buchmalerei des 14 Jahrhunderts. Cologne: Böhlau, 2007; p. 206

Wirth, Jean, and Isabelle Engammare. Les marges à drôleries des manuscrits gothiques, 1250-1350. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2008; p. 212.

Guest, Gerald B. "Illuminated Manuscripts as Machines." Manuscripta 55, no. 2 (2011): 139-169; pp. 163-164, fig. 6, fol. 28r.

Dillon, Emma. The Sense of Sound: Musical Meaning in France, 1260-1330. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012; pp. 204-205 (fig. 6.8), 215-216 (fig. 6.16)

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Schuele, Allyson; Sedovic, Katherine; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Wiegand, Kimber

The Walters Art Museum

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