Walters Ms. W.39, Book of Hours

W.39

Book of Hours

Book of Hours

This Book of Hours was likely produced for a member of the Augustinian Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre at Lille along the Flemish-French border. The patron may have had himself depicted in the opening initial for the Penitential Psalms on fol. 125r, shown kneeling before an altar in prayer with hands extended to heaven, from which God emerges in a cloud, blessing the man and carrying a black book. A significant number of feast days in the calendar are devoted to saints venerated in Lille, and the proximity of St. Peter to the Virgin in the Pentecost historiated initial on fol. 13r may further suggest a connection to Saint-Pierre at Lille. Historiated and inhabited initials, drolleries, and vignettes are painted simply with dark outlines to delineate forms. Decorated initials and marginal ornament combine a calligraphic elegance with bold outlines that ultimately circumscribe the ornament. The ivory plaque depicting the Coronation of the Virgin below a trefoil Gothic arch was inserted into the front cover in the nineteenth century, although the ivory itself dates to the fourteenth century and was carved in either Flanders or Germany.

Ca. 1275-1300 CE

Northeastern France or Western Flanders

Book

Devotional

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

Parchment

Thin to medium-weight calfskin, prepared carefully, and trimmed at the fore-edge, sometimes carelessly, as evinced in the Calendar where the initials "KL" or the numerals listing feast days are sometimes cropped

Foliation: iii+158+iii

Formula: Front flyleaves: iii ; Quire 1: 5 singletons (fols. 1-5); Quire 2: 8, lacking eighth folio (fols. 6-12); Quires 3-5: 8 (fols. 13-36); Quire 6: 8, lacking fifth folio (fols. 37-43); Quire 7: 8, lacking fourth folio (fols. 44-50); Quire 8: 8, lacking first folio (fols. 51-57); Quire 9: 8 (fols. 58-65); Quire 10: 8, lacking second folio (fols. 66-72); Quire 11: 8 (fols. 73-80); Quire 12: 8, lacking fourth folio (fols. 81-87); Quires 13-14: 8 (fols. 88-103); Quire 15: 8, lacking fifth folio (fols. 104-110); Quires 16-21: 8 (fols. 111-158); Back flyleaves: iii

Catchwords: None

Signatures: None

Comments:

6.0 cm wide by 9.0 cm high

2.5 cm wide by 5.0 cm high

1. Columns: 1-4
2. Ruled lines: 11-18

fols. 1r - 158v:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Hand note: Textura
3. Decoration note: Eleven vignettes in the Calendar; thirteen principal historiated initials of biblical or devotional scenes (5-6 lines); secondary historiated initials with male and female faces or inhabited with creatures (2 lines); decorated initials at secondary and tertiary textual divisions (1-2 lines); marginal drolleries on folios with principal historiated initials; decorated marginal and intertextual bands throughout; rubrics in red; text in black ink

fols. 1v - 12v:

1. Title: Calendar
2. Rubric: Li premiers jours deien iiier est deues et li .vii. alefin
3. Incipit: Jenviers a trente et .i. jour et le lune trente
4. Contents: Calendar one third to half full, graded in red and black; Egyptian verses appear on lines 1-2; numerous saints in the calendar associated with Lille: Innocentius (Jan. 21), Aldegund (Jan. 30), Peter (Feb. 22), Albinus (Mar. 1), Vindicianus (Mar. 11), Richard (Apr. 26), Pudentiana (May 18), Eligius and Vindicianus (June 25), Thomas (July 3), Bertin (July 16), Peter (Aug. 1), Apostle Stephen (Aug. 3), Martyr Stephen (Aug. 4), Géry (Aug. 11), Humbert (Sept. 6), Remigius and Piatus (Oct. 1), Dionysius (Oct. 9), Amatus (Oct. 19), Quintinus (Oct. 26), Martin (Nov. 2), Brictius (Nov. 13), Gentianus (Dec. 2), and Nicasius (Dec. 14)
5. Decoration note: Eleven vignettes; "KL" in upper-left corner of each month, gilded, against blue ground with white and red ornament

fols. 13r - 50v:

1. Title: Hours of the Holy Spirit
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea aperies
3. Decoration note: Six large historiated initials, fols. 13r, 24r, 30r, 33r, 36r, and 39r, with accompanying marginal drolleries

fols. 51r - 124v:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Incipit: ...[iu]bilemus ei. Ave Maria, gratia plena dominus tecum.
3. Text note: Initial folios of the Hours of the Virgin, beginning with Matins and the incipit "Domine labia mea aperies," are missing; incipit to Lauds on fol. 50r begins imperfectly
4. Decoration note: Four large historiated initials fols. 91r, 96v, 102r, and 118r, with accompanying marginal drolleries

fols. 125r - 143v:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms
2. Rubric: VII psalmi
3. Incipit: Domine ne in furore tuo
4. Decoration note: Historiated initial fol. 125r with accompanying marginal drollery

fols. 144r - 148v:

1. Title: Fifteen Gradual Psalms
2. Rubric: Psalmi
3. Incipit: Ad dominum cum tribularer
4. Decoration note: Historiated initial fol. 144r with accompanying marginal drollery

fols. 148v - 153r:

1. Title: Litany
2. Rubric: Letania
3. Incipit: Benedicat te dominus ex Sion
4. Decoration note: Large decorated initial fol. 148v

fol. 1v:

1. 
2. Title: Janus-faced man dining
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: January

fol. 3r:

1. 
2. Title: Man warming himself by a fire
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: February

fol. 3v:

1. 
2. Title: Man pruning a tree
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: March

fol. 4v:

1. 
2. Title: Man holding orange blossoms
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: April

fol. 6r:

1. 
2. Title: Falconer riding a horse
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: May

fol. 6v:

1. 
2. Title: Man plowing a field
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: June

fol. 7v:

1. 
2. Title: Man harvesting with a scythe
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: July

fol. 9r:

1. 
2. Title: Man harvesting wheat with a sickle
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: August

fol. 9v:

1. 
2. Title: Man harvesting fruit from a tree
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: September

fol. 11r:

1. 
2. Title: Man harvesting acorns for two pigs
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: October

fol. 12r:

1. 
2. Title: Man slaughtering an ox
3. Form: Marginal miniature
4. Text: Calendar: November

fol. 13r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with Pentecost; marginal drollery of a man battling an ape
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit: Matins

fol. 24r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with the Betrayal of Christ; drollery of a crane, falconer, and dragon
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit: Lauds

fol. 30r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with Resurrection; marginal drollery of an ape pointing
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit: Sext

fol. 33r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with 3 Marys at the Tomb of Christ; marginal drollery of a bird and anthropomorphic creatures
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit: None

fol. 36r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with scene of Noli me tangere; marginal drollery of a man with sword and shield and a dragon
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit: Vespers

fol. 39r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with the Flagellation; marginal drollery of a bird
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit: Prime

fol. 91r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with the Annunciation to the Shepherds; marginal drollery of a dragon
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Terce

fol. 96v:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with the Adoration of the Magi; marginal drollery of a man shooting an arrow at a bird
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Sext

fol. 102r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" with Presentation in the Temple; marginal drollery of a Jew holding a basket and stick
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: None

fol. 118r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "C" with Flight into Egypt; marginal drollery of a woman holding a spoon and bread-trough
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 5 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Compline

fol. 125r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "D" showing a man kneeling before an altar praying, with God descending from a cloud; marginal drollery of a man playing a vielle
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines; marginal drollery
4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms

fol. 144r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "A" with King David as an orant standing in water, looking up to the hand of God descending from a cloud; marginal drollery of a bird
3. Form: Historiated initial "A," 5 lines
4. Text: Fifteen Gradual Psalms

fol. 148v:

1. 
2. Title: Decorated initial "K"
3. Form: Decorated initial "K," 5 lines
4. Text: Litany

The binding is not original.

Rebound in Paris with brown morocco by Léon Gruel in the late nineteenth or earl twentieth century; fourteenth-century ivory plaque depicting the Coronation of the Virgin inserted onto upper board; silver spiral-column clasps and fasteners added to fore-edges; gilded line along board edges, with triple lines on inner boards and five pairs of double lines on top and bottom edges of spine; three ribs on spine; pastedowns of red floral-patterned silk

Produced in Northeastern France or Western Flanders for use at the Augustinian Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre at Lille in the last quarter of the thirteenth century

Acquired by Léon Gruel in the nineteenth century; his bookplate with no. 68 appears on the front pastedown

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Léon Gruel 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." PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1987: p. 362.

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. 781, cat. no. 156.

Diringer, David. The Illuminated Book: Its History and Production. London: Faber and Faber, 1958, p. 381.

Miner, Dorothy, ed. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1949, cat. no. 56, pl. 31 (fols. 10v–11r).

Randall, Lilian M. C. Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.

Miner, Dorothy. "January in the Middle Ages." Bulletin of the Walters Art Gallery 25, no. 4 (1973): figs. 2–3 (fol. 1v).

Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. New York: George Braziller, 1988, pp. 171–172, cat. no. 3, fig. 37 (f.91r).

Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 1. France: 875-1420. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989, pp. 90–93, cat. no. 39.

Sterling, Charles. La Peinture Medievale Pari. Lausanne, Switzerland: La bibliotheque des arts, 1990; p. 50.

Randall, Richard H., Jr. The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993, pp. 138–139, cat. no. 212.

Higgitt, John. The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England, and the Gaelic West. London: British Library, 2000, pp. 178, 182.

Bradford Smith, Elizabeth. "Book of Hours with Inset Plaque of Coronation of the Virgin." In Medieval Art in America: Patterns of Collecting: 1800-1940. Exhibition Catalogue. Palmer Museum of Art. Edited by Elizabeth Bradford Smith et al, 154-155. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996; pp. 154-155, cat. no. 37.

Stones, Alison. "Stylistic Associations, Evolution, and Collaboration." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal: 23 (1995): 11-29; p. 27 (n. 32 for p. 21).

Bennett, Adelaide. "Making Literate Lay Women Visible: Text and Image in French and Flemish Books of Hours, 1220-1320." In Thresholds of Medieval Visual Culture: Liminal Spaces, edited by Elina Gertsman and Jill Stephenson, 125-158. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2012; p. 131.

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Dennis, Nathan S

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Brown, Emily; Emery, Doug; Izer, Emily; Noel, William; Schuele, Allyson; 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.