Walters Ms. W.185, Doffinnes Hours

W.185

Doffinnes Hours

Book of Hours

This Book of Hours was named the Doffinnes Hours after Franchoise de Doffinnes, who owned the book in the late sixteenth century and whose family’s subsequent history remains chronicled on the book’s final folios. However, the manuscript was originally made in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, probably for a married couple, who were originally represented kneeling with scrolls and their coats of arms in the margins, flanking a full-page miniature of the Crucifixion (fol. 72v), but whose figures and arms were later erased and overpainted with white. The manuscript contains both Latin and Dutch texts, supplemented by twelve full-page miniatures, the work of the Master of Walters 185. The manuscript also contains twelve pen-and-ink decorated initials in the calendar, some with grotesque faces, and letter "G" descenders throughout the book that can be attributed to the scribe Johannes de Malborch. The book’s original Dutch provenance is indicated by its calendar (for the Use of Utrecht) and its Hours of the Virgin, which follows predominantly the Use of the Windesheim Congregation. Prayers in Dutch were added to the end of the volume in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, and the book was subsequently rebound with its current cream-colored parchment binding of the seventeenth or eighteenth century.

First quarter of the 15th century CE

Utrecht

Supplied name: Master of Walters 185

Supplied name: Johannes de Malborch

Book

Devotional

The primary language in this manuscript is Latin. The secondary language of this manuscript is Dutch; Flemish.

Parchment

Thin, well-finished cream-colored parchment

Foliation: i+281+v

Modern pencil foliation in upper right corners of rectos; last five folios blank flyleaves, but foliated

Formula: i, 1-2(6), 3(2,-1), 4(2,-1), 5-8(8), 9(10,-8), 10(10,-8), 11(12,-4,12), 12(10,-6), 13(10,-2), 14(8), 15(4,-1), 16-19(8), 20(4,-1), 21-24(8), 25(10,-6), 26-29(8), 30(4), 31(10,-1), 32(10,-1), 33-37(8), 38(6), 39(2)

Catchwords: Lower right margins of the last leaf of each quire, largely trimmed

Comments: Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 7(2), 13(3), 14(4), 15(5), 23(6), 31(7), 39(8), 47(9), 56(10), 65(11), 75(12), 84(13), 93(14), 101(15), 104(16), 112(17), 120(18), 128(19), 136(20), 139(21), 147(22), 155(23), 163(24), 171(25), 180(26), 188(27), 196(28), 204(29), 212(30), 216(31), 225(32), 234(33), 242(34), 250(35), 258(36), 266(37), 274(38), 280(39); placement of two successive full-page miniatures (eccentric quires 3 and 4) before fol. 15r (Hours of the Virgin) unusual; equally remarkable is the atypical placement of the Betrayal miniature on fol. 14v before matins rather than lauds (likely misplaced, possibly through miscollation at the time of the manuscript's rebinding); lauds the only service lacking a prefatory miniature

9.6 cm wide by 12.6 cm high

4.4 cm wide by 6.7 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 12-30
3. Written surface: 4.5 cm wide by 6.3 cm high (calendar); 4.4 cm wide by 6.7 cm high (fols. 15r-278v); 6.5 cm wide by 9.4 cm high (fols. 280v-281v)

fols. 1r - 281v:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Text note: Contains prayers in Latin and Dutch
3. Hand note: Written in Gothic bookhand (through fol. 224v); secondary hand in Dutch in a script that mimics the main text (fols. 226r-278v); other added texts in different hands and scripts
4. Decoration note: Twelve full-page miniatures edged with ink sprays featuring gold tri-petals, small daisy flowers, and ink flourishes around gilt circlets in all four margins; one historiated initial with borders; decorated initials throughout (1-6 lines); rubrics in red; text in black ink

fols. 1r - 12v:

1. Title: Calendar
2. Incipit: Januarius
3. Contents: Calendar for the Use of Utrecht; half full; graded in red and black
4. Decoration note: Twelve decorated initials featuring delicate pen-and-ink decoration on the first line of the rectos of each folio

fols. 13v - 102r:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Incipit: Hore de domina nostra
3. Text note: Predominantly follows the Use of the Windesheim Congregation, but agrees with that of Geert Groote in the choice of hymn in the minor hours (Rex Christe clementissime) and the location of the hymns at lauds and compline before, rather than after, the capitulum
4. Decoration note: Preceded by two full-page miniatures (fols. 13v and 14v), prefacing matins for the Hours of the Virgin; six further full-page miniatures marking each of the other canonical hours (except lauds) as part of a Passion cycle (fols. 49v, 58v, 65v, 72v, 79v, and 91v); historiated initial "D" (fol. 15r); decoratred initials throughout; two "G" descender pen-and-ink decorations in the distinctive style of the scribe Johannes de Malborch (fols. 27r and 43r)

fols. 103v - 136v:

1. Title: Short Hours of the Holy Spirit
2. Incipit: Hore spiritus sancti
3. Decoration note: Prefaced by one full-page miniature (fol. 103v); decorated initial "D" with floral decoration (fol. 104r); other decorated initials throughout

fols. 138v - 170r:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms and litany
2. Incipit: Incipiunt vii Psalmos
3. Decoration note: Prefaced by one full-page miniature (fol. 138v); decorated initial "D" with floral decoration (fol. 139r); other decorated initials throughout; pen-and-ink decorated "G" descender in the style of Johannes de Malborch (fol. 164r)

fols. 171v - 215r:

1. Title: Office of the Dead
2. Incipit: Incipiunt vigilie mortuorum
3. Text note: Short form of the office with only three lessons
4. Decoration note: Prefaced by one full-page miniature (fol. 171v); decorated initials throughout

fols. 216r - 224v:

1. Title: Prayers in Latin
2. Incipit: Domine Ihesu Xpriste
3. Text note: Six prayers: to Christ (fol. 216r, Latin); verses of St. Bernard (fols. 216r-218v, Latin, including Illumina oculos meos); to Mary (fols. 218v-220r, Dutch, rubricated Hier na volghet); to the five joys of the Virgin (fols. 220r-222r, Latin, including Primum fuit gaudium); to Mary (fols. 222r-224r, Latin, rubricated Oratio); to Mary (fol. 224r-v, Latin, including Ave regina celorum)
4. Decoration note: Decorated initials throughout

fols. 225v - 278v:

1. Title: Hours of the Eternal Wisdom in Dutch
2. Incipit: Die wijsheit ghetide
3. Text note: Fol. 279 originally the end of the manuscript, with added notes in French regarding members of the Doffines and d'Orlencourt family in the sixteenth and seventeenth century
4. Decoration note: Prefaced by one full-page miniature (fol. 225v); decorated initials throughout; pen-and-ink decorated "G" descender in the style of Johannes de Malborch (fol. 275r)

fols. 278v - 279v:

1. Title: Added notes
2. Text note: Notes in French recording an inheritance in 1400 and death dates in 1520, 1522, 1536, 1596, 1626, and 1637
3. Hand note: Written in a late humanistic script

fols. 280v - 281v:

1. Title: Added prayer to St. Mary
2. Incipit: Coninghinne der bermherticheit, Maria
3. Text note: Dutch translations of the Latin prayers on fols. 218v-224v
4. Hand note: Written in a looped hybrid script; added prayer in a later hand (late fifteenth or early sixteenth century)

fol. 13v:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: matins

fol. 14v:

1. 
2. Title: Betrayal
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: matins

fol. 15r:

1. 
2. Title: Madonna and Child
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: matins

fol. 49v:

1. 
2. Title: Pilate washing his hands
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: prime

fol. 58v:

1. 
2. Title: Flagellation
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: terce

fol. 65v:

1. 
2. Title: Christ carrying the Cross
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: sext

fol. 72v:

1. 
2. Title: Crucifixion
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: none
5. Label: This miniature originally contained representations of donors with scrolls and coats of arms in the lateral margins flanking the miniature, now erased and overpainted with white.

fol. 79v:

1. 
2. Title: Lamentation
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: vespers

fol. 91v:

1. 
2. Title: Entombment
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: compline

fol. 103v:

1. 
2. Title: Pentecost
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Short Hours of the Holy Spirit: matins

fol. 104r:

1. 
2. Title: Decorated initial
3. Form: Decorated initial "D," 6 lines
4. Text: Short Hours of the Holy Spirit: matins

fol. 138v:

1. 
2. Title: Last Judgment
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms: Psalm 6 (Domine ne in furore)

fol. 139r:

1. 
2. Title: Decorated initial
3. Form: Decorated initial "D," 6 lines
4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms: Psalm 6 (Domine ne in furore)

fol. 171v:

1. 
2. Title: Souls in the bosom of God
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Office of the Dead: vespers

fol. 172r:

1. 
2. Title: Decorated initial
3. Form: Decorated initial "D," 6 lines
4. Text: Office of the Dead: vespers

fol. 225v:

1. 
2. Title: Trinity
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Eternal Wisdom: matins

fol. 226r:

1. 
2. Title: Decorated initial
3. Form: Decorated initial "M," 6 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Eternal Wisdom: matins

The binding is not original.

Seventeenth- or eighteenth-century cream-colored parchment over pasteboards; parchment pastedowns; spine and boards bearing a gold floral stamp; all edges gilt (front cover repaired or reattached with modern cloth)

Produced for unidentified patrons in the early fifteenth century who were originally represented flanking the full-page miniature of the Crucifixion (fol. 72v) but later painted over (calendar for the Use of Utrecht, localizing the place of production of the book)

Franchoise de Doffinnes, Monchy Breton near St. Omer, sixteenth century (ownership note dated 1584, fol. 283v; additional notes regarding the Doffinnes family from 1520-1637, fols. 278v-279v, 283r)

Gruel and Engelmann, Paris, collection no. 1018, before 1909

Librairie Theophile Belin, Paris, 1909 (Catalog Manuscrits avec miniature..., pp. 5-7, no.4)

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest

De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 787, no. 191.

Byvanck, A. W. "Kroniek der Noord-Nederlandsche miniaturen, III." Oudheidkundig Jaarboek, 4th series, 9 (1940): 29-41.

Sterling, Charles [Charles Jacques, pseud.]. La peinture française: les peintres du moyen âge. Paris: P. Tisné, 1941, p. 78, no. 10.

Walters Art Gallery. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949, no. 120.

Panofsky, Erwin. "Guelders and Utrecht: A Footnote on a Recent Acquisition of the Nationalmuseum at Stockholm." Konsthistorisk Tidskrift 22 (1953): 90-102, no. 12.

Miner, Dorothy. Dutch Illuminated Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Connoisseur Yearbook (1955): 66-77.

Walters Art Gallery. The International Style: The Arts in Europe around 1400. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1962, pp. 71-72.

Diringer, David. The Illuminated Book: Its History and Production. 2nd ed. New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 446.

Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke. New York: Phaidon, 1967, p. 391, no. 107.

Delaissé, L. M. J. A Century of Dutch Manuscript Illumination. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968, p. 20.

Gorissen, Friedrich. "Das Stundenbuch im rheinischen Niederland." Studien zur klevischen Musik- und Liturgiegeschichte (Beiträge zur rheinischen Musikgeschichte 75). Cologne: Volk, 1968, pp. 63-109.

Gorissen, Friedrich. Das Stundenbuch der Katharina von Kleve. Berlin: G. Mann, 1973.

Jenni, Ulrike. Das Skizzenbuch der Internationalen Gotik in den Uffizien. Vienna: Holzhausen, 1976, p. 41, no. 193.

Boot, C. "Medieval Netherlandic Manuscripts in Libraries in the State of Maryland." Archief- en bibliotheekwezen in België 56 (1985): 257-294.

Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. New York: George Braziller, 1988, p. 86, 220, pl. 26 (fols. 49v, 58v).

Marrow, James H. "Johannes de Malborch: Dutch Scribe of the Early 15th Century." Miscellanea Martin Wittek: Album de codicologie et de paleographie offert a Martin Wittek. Anny Raman and Eugene Manning, eds. Louvain-Paris: Editions Peeters, 1993, pp. 265-73, figs. 10-11 (fols. 6r, 43r).

Marrow, James H. As Horas De Margarida De Cleves. Lisboa: Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, 1995, pp. 76-78, 162, no. 34, 39, 43.

Principal cataloger: Marrow, James

Catalogers: Devine, Alex; Dutschke, Consuelo; Herbert, Lynley; Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934

Editors: Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William

Copy editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Boot, Christine; Emery, Doug; Noel, William; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.