Walters Ms. W.240, Book of Hours

W.240

Book of Hours

Book of Hours

Made for use in the diocese of Cambrai ca. 1450-60, this Book of Hours is extraordinary for its lavish illumination. It was likely produced by several artists within the circle of Willlem Vrelant, and the wealth of texts and images recall the richness of manuscripts by Vrelant from the same era, such as the Hours of Isabel la Católica (Biblioteca del Palacio Real, Madrid, Arm. Inf. 61) completed in Bruges ca. 1455.

Ca. 1450-60 CE

Bruges

Authority name: Vrelant, Willem, -1481

Known as: Circle of Willem Vrelant

Book

Devotional

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

Parchment

Well-prepared thin to medium-weight parchment, heavier parchment used for inserted illuminated pages; front flyleaf i is seventeenth-century parchment leaf conjoint with front pastedown; back flyleaf i is nineteenth-century parchment; back flyleaf ii is made of the same parchment as front flyleaf i, which is conjoint with back pastedown; it was bound upside down when moved from the front of the book to the end as evinced by offset of calendar page

Foliation: 410+ii

Front flyleaf is modern parchment and is not part of the original quire structure but has been foliated and is numbered "1"

Formula: Collation is not possible to determine due to tight binding

Comments:

13.7 cm wide by 17.9 cm high

6.3 cm wide by 8.7 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 16-17
3. Ruled in light-red ink; layout does not apply to calendar: 8.7 cm x 7.3 cm (written surface), 5 columns, 17 lines

fols. 2r - 410v:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Decoration note: Thirty-three extant full-page miniatures, all inserted, one in grisaille; decorated illuminated initials: present on pages opposite colored miniatures (5 lines), opposite grisaille miniature on fol. 163r, at secondary text divisions (2-4 lines), and "K L" in calendar (3 lines); flourished initials; borders: on pages opposite miniatures, at secondary text openings, on record of calendar pages, opposite grisaille miniature on fol. 162v; marginalia passim with no particular program, mostly single motifs; line fillers, found mostly in litany

fols. 2r - 13v:

1. Title: Calendar
2. Rubric: Januarius habet dies xxxi. luna vero xxx
3. Contents: Full calendar graded in gold, pink, and bright blue; contains Netherlandish and French saints linked with Le Mans, Angers, Brittany: Lucianus (Jan. 7), Felix (Jan. 8), Geneviève (Jan. 11), Licinius (Jan. 13 "Lisini"), Draconus (Feb. 15), Lubianus (Feb. 17 "Lupiani"), Thecla (Feb. 21), Winwaloe (Mar. 3 "Guingolay"), Garganus (Mar. 9), Dordoneus (Mar. 10, bishop), Forty martyrs (Mar. 11), Peter martyr (Mar. 14), Benedict (Mar. 21), Aphrodisius (Mar. 22 "Affrosidii"), Quintinus (Mar. 30), Donatus (Apr. 7), Dionysius of Corinth (Apr. 8), Prochonius (Apr. 9 "Prothonii"), Olympias (Apr. 15), Rufinus (Apr. 18), "Turionis" martyr (Apr. 19), "Annenalis" (May 6), Nicholas (May 8), Medicus (May 16), Torpes (May 17), Paternus (May 21), Julia (May 22), Julius (May 27), Gervasius (June 3), Liphard (June 6), Tugdual (June 8), Felicianus (June 10), Anianus (June 13), Similianus (June 17), Herveus (June 18 "Huervei"), Timothy (June 20), Majanus (June 21 "Memini"), Florentius (June 27), Doctrina (July 5), Cilicinus (July 8), Benedict (July 11), Amalberga (July 13), Cyprian (July 14), Generosus (July 16), Maclovus (Aug. 12), Aegydius (Sept. 1), Humbert (Sept. 9 "Huberti"), Sequanus (Sept. 18), Lambert (Sept. 17), Isernius (Sept. 19), Paternus (Sept. 23), Remigius adn Bavo (Oct. 1), Candidus (Oct. 3), Marcellus (Oct. 8), Dionysius (Oct. 9), Clarus (Oct. 10), Lupus (Oct. 17), Martin (Oct. 24), Rusticus (Oct. 26), Ivo (Oct. 29), Serapion (Oct. 30), Eusebius (Nov. 5), Martin (Nov. 11), Paternus (Nov. 12), Cecilia (Nov. 15), Eleutherius (Nov. 16 "Elutheri"), Fides (Dec. 5), Corentine (Dec. 12), Nicasius (Dec. 14), Valentine (Dec. 16), Julius (Dec. 19), Perpetuus (Dec. 30 "Perpertini")
4. Decoration note: KL in burnished gold against a rose and blue ground with white accents

fols. 14r - 166v:

1. Title: Hours and Masses for Each Day of the Week
2. Rubric: In die dominica. Incipiunt hore de sancta trinitate
3. Incipit: Domine labia mea
4. Contents: Fols. 15r-32v: Sunday Hours of the Trinity: fols. 33r-34v: Two prayers to the Trinity, specifying "N" for name of suppliant; fols. 36r-43v: Hours of the Dead; fols. 43v-49r: Two prayers, to God and to the Virgin; fols. 49v-53v: Mass of the Dead; fols. 55r-60v: Tuesday Hours of the Holy Spirit; fols. 60v-61v: Prayer to God, "Mane cum surrexero"; fols. 61v-66r: Mass of the Holy Spirit; fols. 68r-73r: Wednesday Hours of All Saints; fols. 73r-76r: Prayer to the Virgin, "O intemerata"; fols. 76v-81v: Mass of All Saints; fols. 83r-89r: Thursday Hours of the Holy Sacrament; fols. 89r-92v: Communion prayers; fols. 93r-97v: Mass of the Holy Sacrament; fols. 99r-114v: Friday Hours of the Cross; fols. 114v-116v: Prayer on the Seven Last Words of Christ; fols. 116v-118r: Prayer lamenting the Sorrow of the Virgin by the Cross; fols. 118v-121r: Mass of the Cross; fols. 123r-129v: Saturday Hours of the Virgin; fols. 129v-136v: Two prayers to the Virgin, "O gloriosissima" and "Obsecro te"; fols. 137r-145r: Mass of the Virgin; fols. 146r-147v: Prayer to God for recitation before the Mass; fols. 149r-154v: Mass of St. Michael; fols. 156r-161v: Mass of the Conception of the Virgin; fols. 163r-166v: Mass of the Virgin
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniatures fols. 14v, 35v, 52v, 67v, 82v, 98v, 122v, 148v, 155v, and 162v

fols. 167v - 225v:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Rubric: Incipiunt hore beate marie virginis secundum consuetudinem romane ecclesie. Ad matutinas
3. Incipit: Domine labia mea
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniatures fols. 167v, 183v, 193v, 198v, 203v, 208v, 213v, and 220v

fols. 226v - 234v:

1. Title: Advent Office of the Virgin
2. Rubric: Incipiunt officim beate marie quod dicitur per totum adventum
3. Incipit: Deus in adiutorium meum
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 226v

fols. 235r - 262v:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms, petitions, and collects
2. Rubric: Oracio ante septem psalmos
3. Incipit: Ad te anunciant
4. Contents: Fols. 235r-237v: Prayer to God, introducing the Penitential Psalms; fols, 239r-253r: Seven Penitential Psalms; fols. 253v-262v: Litany; fols. 256v-260v: Petitions, invocations, Psalm 69, prayer for minister, peace, benefactors, faithful dead, absent brethren and handmaidens; fols. 260v-262v: Ten Collects
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 238v

fols. 263r - 266v:

1. Title: Mass for the Remission of Sins
2. Rubric: Incipit missa pro peccatis. Introitus.
3. Incipit: Si inquitates [sic] observaveris domine
4. Decoration note: Foliate margins throughout

fols. 267v - 303v:

1. Title: Office of the Dead
2. Rubric: Incipiunt vigilie mortuorum. Ant.
3. Incipit: Placebo
4. Contents: Use of Rome
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 267v

fols. 304r - 320r:

1. Title: Psalter of St. Jerome
2. Rubric: Incipit salterium sancti iheronimi
3. Incipit: Verba mea auribus
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 304v

fols. 320v - 335v:

1. Title: Suffrages
2. Rubric: Memoria de sancto iohanne baptista
3. Incipit: Inter natos mulierum
4. Contents: Suffrages for saints: fol. 321r: John the Baptist; fol. 323r: Christopher; fol. 325r: George; fol. 327r: Sebastian; fol. 329r: Andrew; fol. 331r: Augustine; fol. 333r: Francis; fol. 335r: Bernardinus
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniatures fols. 320v, 322v, 324v, 328v, 330v, 332v, and 334v

fols. 336r - 345v:

1. Title: Eleven Psalms
2. Rubric: Psalmus David.
3. Incipit: Usquequo domine
4. Contents: Psalms 12, 42, 70, 53, 66, 30, 54, 60, 58, and 69
5. Decoration note: Foliate borders throughout

fols. 346r - 372r:

1. Title: Hours of the Passion
2. Rubric: Incipiunt hore de passione xpristi.
3. Incipit: Domine labia mea
4. Decoration note: Foliate margins throughout

fols. 373v - 410v:

1. Title: Gospels Sequences of the Passion
2. Rubric: Dominica in ramis palmarum passio domini nostri ihesu xpisti secundum matheum
3. Incipit: In illo tempore
4. Contents: Fols. 374r-386v: Matthew 26:1-27:66; fols. 388r-398v: Mark 14:1-15:46; fols. 400r-410v: Luke 22:7-23:53
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniatures fols. 373v, 387v, and 399v

fol. 14v:

1. 
2. Title: Throne of Grace
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Sunday Mass: for the Trinity
5. Comment:

   The Evangelist symbols each hold a spiraling scroll; the eagle reveals the inscription: "Sanctus iohanne ewangelista"; the same formula is repeated in the scrolls held by the other symbols.

fol. 35v:

1. 
2. Title: Raising of Lazarus
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Monday Mass: for the Dead

fol. 54v:

1. 
2. Title: Pentecost
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Tuesday Mass: for the Holy Spirit

fol. 67v:

1. 
2. Title: All Saints
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Wednesday Mass: for All Saints

fol. 82v:

1. 
2. Title: Adoration of the Host: Family Praying before the Altar
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Thursday Mass: for the Sacrament

fol. 98v:

1. 
2. Title: Crucifixion
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Friday Mass: for the Cross
5. Comment:

   The centurion at the right of the cross holds a scroll inscribed: "Vere filius Dei erat iste"

fol. 122v:

1. 
2. Title: Virgin and Child
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Saturday Mass: for the Virgin

fol. 148v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Michael vanquishes three devils
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Mass of St. Michael

fol. 155v:

1. 
2. Title: Meeting at the Golden Gate
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Mass of the Conception of the Virgin

fol. 162v:

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

fol. 167v:

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

fol. 183v:

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

fol. 193v:

1. 
2. Title: Nativity-Adoration
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Prime

fol. 198v:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation to dancing shepherds
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Terce

fol. 203v:

1. 
2. Title: Adoration of the Magi
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Sext

fol. 208v:

1. 
2. Title: Presentation in the Temple
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: None

fol. 213v:

1. 
2. Title: The Massacre of the Innocents
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Vespers

fol. 220v:

1. 
2. Title: The Flight into Egypt and fall of the idols
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Compline

fol. 226v:

1. 
2. Title: The Death of the Virgin
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Advent Office

fol. 238v:

1. 
2. Title: The Last Judgment
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Penitential Psalms

fol. 267v:

1. 
2. Title: Funeral service
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Office of the Dead

fol. 304v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Jerome in his study
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Psalter of St. Jerome

fol. 320v:

1. 
2. Title: St. John the Baptist
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrages: St. John the Baptist

fol. 322v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Christopher
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrages: St. Christopher

fol. 324v:

1. 
2. Title: St. George slaying the dragon
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrages: St. George

fol. 326v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Sebastian
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrages: St. Sebastian

fol. 328v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Andrew
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrages: St. Andrew

fol. 330v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Augustine
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrages: St. Augustine

fol. 332v:

1. 
2. Title: Stigmatization of St. Francis
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrages: St. Francis

fol. 334v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Bernardinus of Siena with the owner of the book kneeling in the margin
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrages: St. Bernardinus

fol. 373v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Matthew writing
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Gospel Sequences: Matthew 26:1

fol. 387v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Mark writing on scroll
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Gospel Sequences: Mark 14:1

fol. 399v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Luke writing in book
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Gospel Sequences: Luke 22:7

The binding is not original.

Belgian seventeenth-century boards covered with nineteenth-century crimson velvet; resewn on four alum-tawed straps; remains of endbands in blue and yellow silk over alum-tawed core; seventeenth-century gilded edges; leather fore-edge tabs, two blue ribbon markers; two nineteenth-century brass catches hinged from upper cover

Made in Bruges ca. 1450-60 for the use of Rome, in the circle of Willem Vrelant; French and South Netherlandish saints in Calendar; patron depicted before St. Bernardinus on fol. 334v, perhaps also with his family at mass and funeral service on fols. 82v and 267v

Bishop D. Fray Pedro d la Torre, Rio de la Plata, 1555

Seventeenth-century inscription "Vistas Ellicendo Roche" written upside down on back flyleaf ii; contemporary inscription upside down on facing pastedown "n 2"

Don Saturnino Segunola of Buenos Aires obtained the book in Lima, 1800; fol. 1r: inscription with his name and date along with the biblical quotation: "posuitque Dominus Cain signum ut non interficeret eum omnis qui invenisset eum. Gen. lib. 1 cap. 4"

William Bragge, London 1876, sold the book to Thibaudeau; Bragge's sale lot 487

McFarlane bought the manuscript in London, Sotheby's, May 6, 1909, lot. 10

Léon Gruel, Paris; his bookplate inscribed "N. 965" on front pastedown

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel between 1909 and 1931

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. 795, cat. no. 252.

Kessler, Herbert L. "A Book of Hours from the Atelier of Willem Vrelant." Scriptorium 18/1 (1964): 94-99; p. 98, Pl. 156.

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. 721-726.

Farquhar, James D. Creation and Imitation. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Nova in association with NYIT University Press, 1976; figs. 15, 29, 33, 35, 37, 39, 49, 57, 89, 90.

Farquhar, James D. "The Manuscript as a Book." In Pen to Press: Illustrated Manuscript and Printed Books in the First Century of Printing. Accompanying an exhibition at University of Maryland, College Park. Edited by Sandra Hindman and James D. Farquhar, 11-99. Baltimore: University of Maryland University Press, 1977; pp. 69-70, figs. 12, 25.

Farquhar, James D. "Identity in an Anonymous Age: Bruges Manuscript Illumination and Their Signs." Viator 11 (1980): 371-383; p. 378.

Rogers, Nicholas. "Books of Hours Produced in the Low Countries for the English Market in the Fifteenth Century." M. Phil., Cambridge University, 1982; p. 300.

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. 425, fig. 33.

Voelkle, William. "Morgan Manuscript M.1001: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Evil Ones." In Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Papers Presented in Honor of Edith Porada. Edited by A. E. Farkas, P. O. Harper, and E. B. Harrison, 101-109. Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern, 1987; p. 109.

Plummer, John. "'Use' and 'Beyond Use.'" In Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. Exhibition Catalogue, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Edited by Roger S. Wieck, 149-152. New York: George Braziller, 1988; pp. 150-152.

Lacaze, Charlotte. "A little-known manuscript from the workshop of Master Pancraz." In Masters and Miniatures: Proceedings of the Congress on Medieval Manuscript Illumination in the Northern Netherlands. Utrecht, 10-13 December 1989. Doornspijk, Netherlands: Davaco, 1991; p. 259.

Bousmanne, Bernard. "Remarques sur la décoration marginale d'un livre d'heures de la Bibliothèque Ambrosienne (Milan, Bibliothèque Ambrosienne, ms. S.P. 12)." Aevum Rassegna di scienze storiche linguistiche e figologiche LXIII/2 (1989): 252-264; p. 257.

Wieck, Roger Seymour. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. Exhibition Catalogue, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. New York: George Braiziller, 1988; pp. 30, 41, 61, 99, 104, 109, 114, 159, 165, 212; cat. no. 92 (Pl. 21), figs. 10, 82, 92.

Bousmanne, Bernard. "Prolégomènes à la constitution et à l'interprétation d'un corpus de manuscrits dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux au xve siècle." Ph.D. diss., Université Catholique de Louvain, 1994; pp. 24, 235-241.

Fassbender, Birgit. Gotische Tanzdarstellungen. Europäische Hochschulschriften. Reihe 28, Kunstgeschichte, ser. XXVIII, vol. 192. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1994; pp. 179, 252, fig. 96.

Clark, Gregory T. The Hours of Isabel la Católica and Manuscript Painting in Flanders in the Time of Philip the Good (1419-1467). Commentary volume for facsimile edition. Münster: Verlag Biblioteca Rara, 1996; figs. 80, 81.

Bousmanne, Bernard. Item à Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur: Willem Vrelant, un aspect de l'enluminure dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux sous le mécénat des ducs de Bourgogne Philippe le Bon et Charles le Téméraire. Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1997; pp. 37-38, 43, 79-81, 105, 112, 117-118, 121, 149, 165, 219-221 (no. LV:II), 317, 343 (n. 35), 349 (nn. 5, 7), 350-351 (n. 57), 377.

Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, Belgium, 1250-1530. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 240-250, cat. no. 248.

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Kren, Thomas. "Willem Vrelant and Workshop." In Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe. Edited by Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, 117-119. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003; p. 119 (ref. under cat. no. 15).

Clark, Gregory T. "Beyond Jacquemart Pilavaine, Simon Marmion, and the Master of Antoine Rolin: Book Painting in the Hainaut in the Penultimate Decade of the Fifteenth Century." Manuscripts in Transition: Recycling Manuscripts, Texts, and Images: Proceedings of the International Congress Held in Brussels (5-9 November 2002). Edited by Brigitte Deckeyzer and Jan van der Stock, 391-398. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2005; pp. 396-397.

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Stroppa, Nicoletta. "Per Willem Vrelant: l'apporto della macrofotografia e dell'infrarosso alla definizione di uno stile." In Culture figurative a confronto tra Fiandre e Italia dal XV al XVII secolo: Atti del Convegno Internazionale Nord/Sud. Ricezioni fiamminghe al di qua delle Alpi. Prospettive di studio e indagini tecniche (Padova, Università degli Studi, 25-27 ottobre 2007). Edited by Anna de Floriani and Maria Clelia Galassi, 233-240. Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2008; p. 239.

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Valle, Chiara

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Wallace, Susan

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Emery, Doug; Herbold, Rebekah; Noel, William; Schuele, Allyson; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara; Wiegand, Kimber

The Walters Art Museum

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