Walters Ms. W.262, Book of Hours (for use of Amiens)

W.262

Book of Hours (for use of Amiens)

Book of Hours

This Book of Hours was created ca. 1435-1440 in Amiens by artists from the circle of the Master of W.281 (Randall, cat. 112) for a female patron depicted on fol. 135r. The manuscript contains fourteen miniatures and is localized to Amiens by the contents of the calendar and litany, which include many saints particular to that region. Quire 12 (fols. 82-89) is misbound with quire 13 (fols. 90-97), with Suffrages and the Seven Verses of St. Bernard (fols. 82-89) intended to be after the Office of the Dead (fols. 90-128), as evinced by the location of the rubric for the Office of the Dead on fol. 81v.

Ca. 1425-1440 CE

Amiens

Book

Devotional

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

Parchment

Medium to thick weight, poorly selected and prepared; brownish color

Foliation: i+142+i

Formula: Quires 1-2: 6 (fols. 1-12); Quire 3: 4 (fols. 13-16); Quires 4-10: 8 (fols. 17-72); Quire 11: 8, with second folio tipped after fol. 73 (fols. 73-81); Quire 12: 8, misbound (fols. 82-89); Quires 13-17: 8 (fols. 90-129); Quire 18: 4, with fifth folio tipped after fol. 133 (fols. 130-133); Quire 19: 8 (fols. 135-142)

Catchwords: Somewhat extant beginning on fol. 40v in text hand through fol. 105v, in littera batarda on fols. 113v and 121v, in brown ink

Comments:

14.5 cm wide by 20.0 cm high

6.7 cm wide by 11.2 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 17
3. Ruled in light red ink; layout does not apply to calendar: written space 11.1 cm x 6.9 cm; 4 columns of 17 lines

fols. 1r - 142v:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Hand note: Written in textura formata
3. Decoration note: Fourteen miniatures; decorated initials at major text divisions (4 lines), at secondary text divisions (2 lines), at "K L" in calendar (2 lines), and at versals and dominical letters "A" in calendar (1 lines); foliate borders at pages with miniatures and at secondary text openings identified by 2-line initials; line fillers starting on fol. 25r (1 line), rubrics in red, text in dark brown ink

fols. 1r - 12r:

1. Title: Calendar
2. Contents: Full calendar; graded in gold, red, and blue; contents particular to Amiens; saints of note include Firminus (Jan. 13, first bishop of Amiens, Translation), Ulphia (Jan. 31), Joseph (Mar. 19), Peter II (Apr. 17, "dyacre", bishop of Poitiers), Elphege (Apr. 19), Honoratus (May 16, bishop of Amiens), Helen (May 22), Hildebert (May 27, bishop of Meaux), Fuscianus (Jun. 27, martyred at Amiens), "Saincte doctrine" (Jul. 5), Grimbald (Jul. 8), Willehad (Jul. 13, bishop of Bremen, Ordination), Oswald (Aug. 5), Firminus (Aug. 25, "fremin"), Firminus II ("fremin") and Lupus (Sept. 1, third bishop of Amiens and bishop of Sens, respectively), Aurea (Sept. 13, Translation), Menna (Oct. 3, Toul), Wulfram (Oct. 15, "ouffran", bishop of Sens, Translation), Dometius (Oct. 24, "domice", deacon and canon at Amiens cathedral), Salvius (Oct. 29, bishop of Amiens), Willibrord (Nov. 7, bishop of Utrecht), Fuscianus (Dec. 11)

fols. 13r - 16v:

1. Title: Gospel sequences
2. Rubric: Initium sancti evangelii secundum iohannem. gloria tibi domine.
3. Incipit: In principio: erat verbum

fols. 17r - 60v:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea
3. Contents: Headings at canonical hours in French beginning at Lauds, omitted at Sext and None; other headings in French and Latin
4. Decoration note: Miniatures on fols. 17r, 27r, 36r, 41r, 44v, 47v, 51r and 57r

fols. 61r - 71r:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms
2. Incipit: Domine ne in furore
3. Decoration note: Miniature on fol. 61r

fols. 71r - 75v:

1. Title: Litany, petitions, and collects
2. Rubric: Letanie
3. Contents: Particular to Amiens as per calendar; fols. 71r-73v: Litany, with fifteen martyrs including Stephen, Lawrence, Vincent, Fabian, Sebastian, Dionysius, Mauricius, Eustace, Firminus, Quintinus, Fuscianus, Christopher, George, Lucianus and Clement; eighteen confessors with seven popes, including Remigius, Constantianus, Vedast, Amandus, Germanus, Antony, Dominic, Francis, Benedict, Maurus, and Lupus; eight virgins, including Mary Magdalene, Mary Egyptian, Catherine, Margaret, Lucy, Agatha, Agnes, and Felicitas; fols. 73v-74v: Petitions, invocations, extracts from Lord's prayer, and three versicles; fols. 75r-v: Two collects, headed "Orison"

fols. 76r - 78v:

1. Title: Hours of the Cross
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea
3. Contents: Internal headings in French
4. Decoration note: Miniature on fol. 76r

fols. 79r - 81v:

1. Title: Hours of the Holy Spirit
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea
3. Contents: Internal headings in French
4. Decoration note: Miniature on fol. 79r

fols. 82r - 89v:

1. Title: Suffrages, Seven Verses of St. Bernard, prayer
2. Contents: Fols. 82r-88v: Suffrages to SS. John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Paul, Andrew, Dionysius, Sebastian, Firmin, Nicolas, Maurus, Sulpicius, Antony, Margaret, Catherine, Agnes, and Mary Magdalene; fols. 89r-89v: Seven Verses of St. Bernard and prayer, headed "Les .vii. vers saint bernard"
3. Hand note: Misbound quire
4. Decoration note: Miniature on fol. 87r

fols. 90r - 128v:

1. Title: Office of the Dead
2. Rubric: Pour les mors. antiphona.
3. Incipit: Placebo
4. Text note: Heading starts on fol. 81v; internal headings mostly in French, some in Latin
5. Decoration note: Miniature on fol. 90r

fols. 129r - 129v:

1. Title: Cues to Five Joys of the Virgin with prayer and antiphon
2. Rubric: Les .v. Joyes nostre dame.
3. Incipit: Gaude virgo mater christi que per aurem concepisti
4. Text note: Heading on fol. 128v

fols. 130r - 134v:

1. Title: Two prayers to the Virgin
2. Incipit: Obsecro te
3. Contents: Fols. 130r-132v: Obsecro te; fols. 132v-134v: O intemerata, headed "orison"
4. Decoration note: Heraldic shield on fol. 132v

fols. 135r - 142v:

1. Title: Devotional sequence
2. Incipit: Doulce dame de misericorde mere de pitie.
3. Contents: Fols. 135r-139r: Fifteen Joys of the Virgin; fols. 139r-141v: Seven Requests to our Lord, headed "Les .vii. requestes."; 141v-142v: two hymns, each headed "ynne"
4. Decoration note: Miniature on fol. 135r; seventeenth-century drawing in brown ink of coat of arms, labeled "d'azur aux trois etoiles de sable placés et un cheveron d'argent brizé" on fol. 142v

fol. 17r:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Matins

fol. 27r:

1. 
2. Title: Visitation
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Lauds

fol. 36r:

1. 
2. Title: Nativity
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Prime

fol. 41r:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation to Shepherds
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Terce

fol. 44v:

1. 
2. Title: Adoration of the Magi
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Sext

fol. 47v:

1. 
2. Title: Presentation in the Temple
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: None

fol. 51r:

1. 
2. Title: Flight into Egypt
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Vespers

fol. 57r:

1. 
2. Title: Coronation of the Virgin
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Compline

fol. 61r:

1. 
2. Title: King David penitent
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms

fol. 76r:

1. 
2. Title: Crucifixion
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Cross

fol. 79r:

1. 
2. Title: Pentecost
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit

fol. 87r:

1. 
2. Title: St. Margaret issuing from the dragon
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Suffrages

fol. 90r:

1. 
2. Title: Burial service
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Office of the Dead

fol. 135r:

1. 
2. Title: Virgin and Child enthroned, adored by female manuscript owner presented by St. John the Baptist
3. Form: Miniature
4. Text: Fifteen Joys of the Virgin

The binding is not original.

Bound in Paris, France by Léon Gruel in nineteenth century; brown morocco leather; re-sewn on five cords; upper and lower boards blind tooled with imitation fifteenth-century Flemish motifs; five raised bands on spine; gilt title on spine reading "Heures/ D'Ameins/ Saec. XV.", at tail edge of spine reading "Gruel"; modern gilded edges; two modern leather straps missing, metal edge-pin clasps at fore-edge of upper and lower boards extant

Created in Amiens ca. 1435-1440 by artists from the circle of the Master of Walters 281 for female patron, depicted on fol. 135r

Rebound by firm of Léon Gruel, Paris bookbinder, twentieth century

Leo S. Olschki, Florence bookseller, before 1912

Purchased from Leo S. Olschki by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1912

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. 795, cat. no. 240.

Bowles, E. A., "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery," Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, 1976, p. 721, 723.

Cahn, W.. and Marrow, J, "Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Yale: A Selection," Yale University Library Gazette 4, no. 52 (1978), pp. 174-284

Plummer, John, with the assistance of Gregory Clark. The Last Flowering: French Painting in Manuscripts, 1420-1530. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1982., cat. no. 14, p. 11

Owens, M.B., "Musical Subjects in the Illumination of Books of Hours from Fifteenth-Century France and Flanders," PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1987, p. 232, 433, fig. 47 (fol. 41r)

Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified. The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. New York: George Braziller. 1988. Pp. 129, 187, cat. no. 36, fig. 118, fol. 90

Sterling, C., La peinture médiévale a Paris, Paris 1990

Nash, Susie. Between France and Flanders: Manuscript Illumination in Lyons. London: The British Library, 1999; pp. 76-78, 117, 119, 120, 128, 133, 187, 215, 218-219, 224, 228, 405, figs. 11, 16, 66-67, 69-70, 179, 184, 189, pl. 13.

Wieck, Roger S. “The Death Desired: Books of Hours and the Medieval Funeral.” In Death and Dying in the Middle Ages. Edited by Edelgard E. DuBruck and Barbara I. Gusick, 431-476. New York: Peter Lang, 1999; pp. 440 (as fig. 24), 447 (n. 23), 472 (fig. 24).

Clark, Gregory T. Made in Flanders: The Master of the Ghent Privileges and Manuscript Painting in the Southern Netherlands in the Time of Philip the Good. Tournhout, Belgium: Brepolis Publishers, 2000; pp. 67, 71; illus. 31-32.

Natale, Mauro. “Maestro de las Horas Collins: Horas de Thiébaut de Luxemburgo, Amiens, c. 1440.” In El Renacimiento mediterrńeo: Viajes de artistas e itinerarios de obras entre Italia, Francia y España en el siglo XV. Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, del 31 de enero al 6 de mayo de 2001, Valencia Museu de Belles Arts de València, del 18 de mayo al 2 de septiembre de 2001. Edited by Mauro Natale, 216-218. Madrid: Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2001; p. 216 (ref. under cat. no. 17).

Büttner, F.O. “Ce sera moy. Realitäsghalt und Rhetorik in Darstellungen der Toten- und Vergänglichkeitsikonographie des Stundengebetbuchs.” In "Als Ich Can": Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers. Edited by Bert Cardon, Jan Van der Stock, and Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, 243-316, vol. 1. Leuven: Peeters Press, 2002; p. 251.

Clark, Gregory T. “‘Made in Flanders’ and The Master of the Ghent Privileges: A First Coda.” In "Als Ich Can": Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers. Edited by Bert Cardon, Jan Van der Stock, and Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, 383-400, vol. 1. Leuven: Peeters Press, 2002; pp. 385-397.

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Ransom, Allison

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Emery, Doug; Noel, William; Ransom, Allison; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; 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.