Walters Ms. W.225, Book of Hours

W.225

Book of Hours

Book of Hours

This Book of Hours was completed for the Use of Rouen in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. The original female owner is depicted in a donor portrait kneeling at the right of the Pietà on the last illuminated page of the book (fol. 114r). Marked prominence is given to this female worshiper as her scale exceeds that of the Virgin as well as SS. John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene. The Pentecost miniature on fol. 74r exemplifies the interest during that period in replacing the traditional central perspective with a diagonally conceived composition. This off-center orientation highlighting St. Peter rather than the Virgin was a popular theme in contemporary Books of Hours from Rouen.

Last quarter of the 15th century CE

Rouen, France

Book

Devotional

The primary language in this manuscript is Latin. The secondary language of this manuscript is French, Middle (ca.1400-1600).

Parchment

Medium-weight parchment, well-prepared; flyleaves are modern paper

Foliation: ii+124+ii

Modern pencil foliation, upper right corners, rectos

Formula: Quire 1: 2, third folio tipped in (fols. 1-3); Quire 2: 12 (fols. 4-15); Quire 3: 8 (fols. 16-23); Quire 4-5: 4 (fols. 24-31); Quire 6-9: 8 (fols. 32-63); Quire 10: 10 (fols. 64-73); Quire 11: 4, first folio canceled (fols. 74-76); Quire 12-16: 8 (fols. 77-116); Quire 17: 6 (fols. 117-122); Quire 18: 2 (fols. 123-124)

Comments: Interleaving before full-page miniatures; one sheet left intact between fol. 15v and fol. 16r, otherwise, only some traces are visible

11.2 cm wide by 16.2 cm high

5.5 cm wide by 8.6 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 19
3. Layout does not apply to calendar; written surface: 5.8 cm wide by 8.5 cm high; four columns of 17 lines

fols. 1r - 124v:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Contents: Use of Rouen; text mostly in Latin except calendar, Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, and Seven Requests to Our Lord in French
3. Decoration note: Six full-page miniatures; eight miniatures less than full-page with figural scenes in lower borders; twenty-four calendar illuminations with labors and zodiac symbols for each month (17 lines); decorated initials throughout (1-4 lines); rectangular borders filled with flowers, fruits, and acanthus at sides of text divisions; borders filling area beside illuminations in calendar and around smaller miniatures at text divisions; line fillers throughout; rubrics in tan-rose; text in black ink

fols. 4r - 15v:

1. Title: Calendar
2. Contents: Calendar in French, one half to three-fourths filled; use of Rouen; major feasts in gold and others in bright blue and mauve; feasts of note include: Severinus (Jan. 8), Paul apostle (Jan. 25, Conversion), Anne (Jan. 30, Translation of relics), Severus (Feb. 1), Ansbert (Feb. 9), Adrianus (Mar. 4), Constantine of Cornwall (Mar. 9), Richard (Apr. 3, English bishop, Cistercian), Hugh (Apr. 9), Constantine (June 15, bishop of Beauvais), Gervasius (June 19), Martialis (July 3, Rouen), Tranfiguration of Christ (Aug. 6, 'Saint sauueur'), Taurinus (Aug. 11), Dionysius (Sept. 9), Mellonius (Oct. 22), Romanus (Oct. 23); Benignus (Nov. 3, regularly Nov. 1), 'O sapiencia' (Dec. 16), Gatianus (Dec. 18), Theodosia (Dec. 22), Ursinus (Dec. 30)
3. Decoration note: Labors of the months and zodiac appear at the center in arched panels at fore-edge, border ornament above and below

fols. 16r - 31v:

1. Title: Gospel Sequences
2. Rubric: Secundum iohannem
3. Incipit: In principio erat verbum
4. Contents: Fols. 16r-20v: John 1.1-14; fols. 20v-26v: Luke 1.26-38, Matthew 2.1-12, and Mark 16.14-20; two prayers to the Virgin, 'Oracio de beata maria' (fol. 20v) and 'Alia oracio' (fol. 23v); fols. 27r-30v: verse prayer to the Virgin in French, 12 twelve-line stanzas; blank fols. 31r-v
5. Decoration note: Miniature less than full-page fol. 16r

fols. 32r - 70v:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea aperies
3. Contents: Use of Rouen; fols. 48r-51v: ten Suffrages appended to Lauds, to Holy Spirit, Sts. Michael, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, James the Greater, Sebastian, Nicolas, Romanus (Rouen), Mary Magdalene, Catherine
4. Decoration note: Two full-page miniatures fols. 32r and 52r; six miniatures less than full-page fols. 40r, 56r, 59r, 61v, 64v, and 67r

fols. 71r - 73v:

1. Title: Hours of the Cross
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea
3. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 71r

fols. 74r - 76v:

1. Title: Hours of the Holy Spirit
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea
3. Contents: Blank fol. 76v
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 74r

fols. 77r - 90v:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms, litany, and collects
2. Incipit: Domine ne in furore tuo
3. Contents: Fols. 77r-86r: Seven Penitential Psalms; fols. 86r-90v: Litany, fifteen martyrs including Adrian, seventeen confessors including Rouen saints, e.g. Romanus and Severus, twelve virgins including Mary Magdalene and Austreberta; fols. 88v-90r: Petitions, cues to prayers, Ps. 69; fols. 90r-v: three collects
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 77r

fols. 91r - 113v:

1. Title: Office of the Dead
2. Incipit: Dilexi quoniam exaudiet
3. Contents: Use of Rouen
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 91r

fols. 114r - 124v:

1. Title: Fifteen Joys of the Virgin and Seven Requests to Our Lord
2. Incipit: Doulce dame de misericorde mere de pitie fontaine de tous biens
3. Contents: Fols. 114r-119r: Fifteen Joys of the Virgin; fols. 119r-121v: Seven Requests to Our Lord; blank fols. 122r-124v
4. Decoration note: Miniature less than full-page fol. 114r

fol. 4r:

1. 
2. Title: Two-headed man (Janus) feasting
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 4v:

1. 
2. Title: Aquarius
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 5r:

1. 
2. Title: Man warming himself by fire
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 5v:

1. 
2. Title: Pisces
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 6r:

1. 
2. Title: Two man pruning and attaching vines to treliis
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 6v:

1. 
2. Title: Aries
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 7r:

1. 
2. Title: Couple seated in garden
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 7v:

1. 
2. Title: Taurus
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 8r:

1. 
2. Title: Couple astride a horse
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 8v:

1. 
2. Title: Gemini
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 9r:

1. 
2. Title: Two men scything
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 9v:

1. 
2. Title: Leo
3. Form: Calendar illustration
4. Comment:

   Mistakenly depicted on fol. 9v instead of on fol. 10v

fol. 10r:

1. 
2. Title: Man reaping with sickle and man bundling sheaves
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 10v:

1. 
2. Title: Cancer
3. Form: Calendar illustration
4. Comment:

   Mistakenly depicted on fol. 10v instead of 9v

fol. 11r:

1. 
2. Title: Two men threshing in barn
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 11v:

1. 
2. Title: Virgo
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 12r:

1. 
2. Title: Man trampling grapes
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 12v:

1. 
2. Title: Libra
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 13r:

1. 
2. Title: Man sowing and woman with distaff
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 13v:

1. 
2. Title: Scorpio
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 14r:

1. 
2. Title: Man knocking down acorns for five pigs
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 14v:

1. 
2. Title: Sagittarius
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 15r:

1. 
2. Title: Man slaughtering pig
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 15v:

1. 
2. Title: Capricorn
3. Form: Calendar illustration

fol. 16r:

1. 
2. Title: St. John Evangelist on Patmos; panel at base: SS. Matthew, Luke, and Mark writing on scrolls
3. Form: Miniature less than full-page with figural scene in lower border

fol. 32r:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation
3. Form: Full-page miniature

fol. 40r:

1. 
2. Title: Visitation; panel at base: Virgin walking on road
3. Form: Miniature less than full-page with figural scene in lower border

fol. 52r:

1. 
2. Title: Nativity, Adoration of Shepherds
3. Form: Full-page minaiture

fol. 56r:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation to shepherds and shepherdess; panel at base: Dance of shepherds and shepherdess
3. Form: Miniature less than full-page with figural scene in lower border

fol. 59r:

1. 
2. Title: Adoration of Magi; panel at base: Three Magi before Herod
3. Form: Miniature less than full-page with figural scene in lower border

fol. 61v:

1. 
2. Title: Presentation in Temple; panel at base: Sacrifice of Isaac
3. Form: Miniature less than full-page with figural scene in lower border

fol. 64v:

1. 
2. Title: Flight into Egypt; panel at base: Miracle of Cornfield
3. Form: Miniature less than full-page with figural scene in lower border

fol. 67r:

1. 
2. Title: Coronation of Virgin; panel at base: Assumption of Virgin
3. Form: Miniature less than full-page with figural scene in lower border

fol. 71r:

1. 
2. Title: Crucifixion
3. Form: Full-page miniature

fol. 74r:

1. 
2. Title: Pentecost
3. Form: Full-page miniature

fol. 77r:

1. 
2. Title: King David harping
3. Form: Full-page miniature

fol. 91r:

1. 
2. Title: Job on dungheap
3. Form: Full-page miniature

fol. 114r:

1. 
2. Title: Virgin and Child enthroned; panel at base: Pietà with kneeling female donor
3. Form: Miniature less than full-page with figural scene in lower border

The binding is not original.

Rebound in Italy in the last quarter of the nineteenth century; dark blue morocco; sewn on four recessed cords; inscription on spine in gold read: "UFFIZIO / FRANCESE / MINIATO"

Created for the use of Rouen ca. 1480-90; illuminated in Rouen under influence of Jean Bourdichon of Tours; first owner female, depicted on fol. 114r

Owned by someone named Maucourt at Montigny in 1725; recorded on fol. 124v: "MAVCOVRT / 1725 / amontigny"

Leo S. Olschki, bookseller, Florence, late nineteenth or early twentieth century; an 'x' and '566' inscribed on front flyleaf i, v; note below by Olschki concerning decoration; date penciled over partially erased earlier notation

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Olschki before 1931

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

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. 800, cat. no. 278

Bowles, Edmund A. "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery." Music Library Association 32 (1976): 719-726; pp. 721, 722 and 726

Stones, A. and J. Steyvaert. Medieval Illumination, Glass and Sculpture in Minnesota Collection, exh. cat. Minneapolis: University Gallery, University of Minnesota, 1978, p. 92, figs. 69 and 70 (fols. 32 and 74)

Thomson, James C. Music through the Renaissance. Dubuque, Iowa: W.C. Brown Co., 1984, p. 231, fig. 7.9 (f. 56r, border scene)

Hindman, Sandra L. and Michael Heinlen. Important Western Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts and Illuminated Leaves. Akron, Ohio: B.P. Ferrini, 1987, p. 155

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, p. 417, fig. 26 (fol. 77r)

Sinclair, Keith Val, and Jean Sonet. Prières en ancien français: Additions et corrections aux articles 1-2374 du Répertoire de Sonet, Supplément. Townsville: James Cook University of North Queensland, 1987, pp. 43 and 72

Burin, E. "Manuscript Illumination in Lyons c. 1450-1530." Ph.D. diss, Cambridge University, 1989, p. 29

Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 2. France, 1420-1540. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1989; pp. 316-321, cat. no. 167

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Han, Yuna

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Conservator: Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Emery, Doug; Han, Yuna; Tabritha, Ariel; Wiegand, Kimber

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-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.