Walters Ms. W.494, Lace Book of Marie de' Medici

W.494

Lace Book of Marie de' Medici

Prayerbook

This Prayerbook was made for Marie de' Medici in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Beyond its provenance as a personal book owned by the famous queen, it is exceptional for its intricately cut borders, which transform the parchment margins into lace. This effect was created using a technique known as "canivet," in which a small knife was used to cut ornate patterns into paper or parchment. An art form that flourished originally among nuns in France, Germany, and the Netherlands beginning in the sixteenth century, it was employed to exceptional effect in several manuscripts connected with Marie de' Medici. The Walters manuscript, made for her while she was regent of France, and wife of King Henry IV, contains twenty-eight miniatures, including original religious imagery as well as several later additions: a gouache portrait of the elderly queen, and nine small miniatures produced in Bruges ca. 1450 by an artist influenced by the Eyckian and Gold Scrolls styles prevalent at the time; the coat-of-arms of Marie de Medici, as well as her monogram. The Walters manuscript retains its original binding composed of mosaic inlays in green and black leather, as well as fine gilt pointillé foliate tooling, and a replica of the binding was created by Léon Gruel for Henry Walters on one of his seventeenth-century printed books (92.467) that also connects to Marie de' Medici.

Second quarter of the 17th century (with several added 15th-century miniatures)

Paris (?)

Book

Devotional

The primary language in this manuscript is French.

Parchment

Medium-weight parchment, borders pierced with complex lace patterns; first flyleaf parchment; front flyleaves i-iv and back flyleaves i-iii are antique laid paper

Foliation: v+52+iii

Modern pencil foliation upper right corners rectos

Formula: Lace-cut folios and fragile pigments make determining collation an unnecessary risk for manuscript

Catchwords: None

Signatures: None

Comments:

9.2 cm wide by 13.3 cm high

5.0 cm wide by 8.0 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 4-26
3. Layout varies greatly by page; text panels outlined in purple

fols. 1r - 52v:

1. Title: Prayerbook
2. Hand note: Written in humanist script
3. Decoration note: Nine miniatures, cuttings from a fifteenth-century Flemish Book of Hours, affixed to fols. 1r, 2r, and 4r; contemporary with the manuscript are also one full-page miniature, fifteen smaller miniatures, and illuminations or painted scenes or patterns in borders (passim); gouache portrait of elderly Marie de' Medici affixed to fol. 51r at uncertain point (painting dates to seventeenth or eighteenth century); borders of fols. 5-50 cut with intricate lace designs, often with painted imagery and designs including architectural elements, christological symbolism, ciphers, and anagrams, such as MA, MR, MH, CS, IHS, and MARIE DE MEDICIS (latter found on fols. 15r and 38r); initials in red, blue, gold, and silver; text in black ink

fols. 1r - 2r; 4r - 4r:

1. Title: Added Flemish image cycle
2. Contents: Nine miniatures excised from earlier Book of Hours and inserted at later date
3. Decoration note: These miniatures date to ca. 1450, and were produced in Bruges by an artist influenced by the Eyckian and Gold Scrolls styles prevalent at the time; Randall has reconstructed the original textual sequence associated with these fifteenth-century Flemish miniatures, which have been inserted into the manuscript: fol. 1r, top: Funeral Service (Office of the Dead), and Annunciation (Hours of the Virgin: Matins); fol. 1r, bottom: Garden of Gethsemane (Hours of the Cross: Matins), and Betrayal and Arrest of Christ (Hours of the Cross: Lauds); fol. 2r, top: Christ before Pilate (Hours of the Cross: Prime), and Carrying the Cross (Hours of the Cross: Sext); fol. 2r, bottom: Man of Sorrows (Seven Prayers of St. Gregory), and Souls of the blessed before God the Father (Commendation of Souls); fol. 4r: St. Jerome in his study (Psalter of St. Jerome)

fols. 3r - 50v:

1. Title: Priers Crestiennes
2. Incipit: Sus sus mortels venez m'entendre
3. Contents: French prayers, mostly written in verse, focused especially on lamenting personal suffering
4. Decoration note: Miniatures (not including added cutting on fol. 4r) found on fols. 3r, 6r, 8r, 13r, 18r, 24r, 27r, 30r, 33r, 34r, 34v, 36r, 39r, 42r, 44r, 46r, 48r, 50v, and 51r

fol. 1r:

1. 
2. Title: Top: Funeral Service; Annunciation; Bottom: Garden of Gethsemane; Betrayal and Arrest of Christ
3. Form: Small miniatures
4. Comment:

   These miniatures were removed from their original context in a fifteenth-century Flemish Book of Hours and pasted into Marie de' Medici's book at an unknown time.

fol. 2r:

1. 
2. Title: Top: Christ before Pilate; Carrying the Cross; Bottom: Man of Sorrows supported by angel; Souls of the blessed brought before God the Father
3. Form: Small miniatures
4. Comment:

   These miniatures were removed from their original context in a fifteenth-century Flemish Book of Hours and pasted into Marie de' Medici's book at an unknown time.

fol. 3r:

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

fol. 4r:

1. 
2. Title: St. Jerome in his study
3. Form: Small miniature
4. Comment:

   This miniature was removed from its original context in a fifteenth-century Flemish Book of Hours and pasted into Marie de' Medici's book at an unknown time.

fol. 6r:

1. 
2. Title: Flight into Egypt
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 8r:

1. 
2. Title: John the Baptist baptizing Christ
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 13r:

1. 
2. Title: Transfiguration
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 18r:

1. 
2. Title: Betrayal and Arrest of Christ
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 24r:

1. 
2. Title: Last Supper
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 27r:

1. 
2. Title: Garden of Gethsemane
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 30r:

1. 
2. Title: Christ before Pilate
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 33r:

1. 
2. Title: Flagellation of Christ
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 34r:

1. 
2. Title: Ecce Homo
3. Form: Marginal miniature

fol. 34v:

1. 
2. Title: Christ Carrying the Cross
3. Form: Marginal miniature

fol. 36r:

1. 
2. Title: Crucifixion
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 39r:

1. 
2. Title: Deposition
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 42r:

1. 
2. Title: Resurrection
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 44r:

1. 
2. Title: Noli me tangere
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 46r:

1. 
2. Title: Christ announcing Virgin's death to her; Assumption of Virgin in margin
3. Form: Small miniature, and marginalia

fol. 48r:

1. 
2. Title: Nimbed man on deathbed
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 50v:

1. 
2. Title: Painted emblem with snakes, cross, oil lamp, and thistles on top of tomb
3. Form: Small miniature

fol. 51r:

1. 
2. Title: Portrait of Marie de' Medici
3. Form: Small portrait painting
4. Comment:

   Painted in gouache on paper and affixed at later date.

The binding is original.

Bound in France, likely in Paris, by Ruette at time of manuscript's creation ca. 1640; red leather with olive-brown inlaid leather geometric panel designs; fine gilt pointillé foliate tooling; two extant gilt inlaid diamonds on spine; gilt edges; León Gruel created facsimile of binding for one of Henry Walters' related printed books, L'Entree de la Reyne Mere du Roy Tres-Chrestien dans les Villes des Pays Bas, 1632, by Jean Puget de La Serre (accession number 92.467)

Created in Paris (?) for Marie de Medici in the second quarter of the seventeenth century

Baron d'Heiss, Paris, second half of the eighteenth century; related inscriptions: "o Ep" on front flyleaf i, r; "40D168. 1776" on back flyleaf i, r; sold in his sale in Paris on March 7, 1785, lot no. 358, with front flyleaf iii, r inscribed "No. 358. B. d'Heiss"

Duchesse de Berry, nineteenth century; inscribed "Duchesse de Berry No. 15" on front flyleaf i, r; her sale in Paris on March 22, 1864, lot no. 3, with "3" inscribed on front flyleaf i, r

M. de Machy, purchased from Berry sale in 1864 for 1,260 francs

León Gruel (?), late nineteenth or early twentieth century; his ownership of manuscript assumed given his careful replication of the binding on a printed book for Henry Walters ca. 1920, however there is no evidence in the manuscript to connect it with Gruel (he usually applied his bookplate inside), and as Walters owned the lace book by 1905, it is possible he obtained it elsewhere and only asked Gruel to replicate the binding; French book dealer Damascene Morgand published the lace book in 1886 while it was still in Machy's collection, and it is possible it could have gone through his hands later, as Walters purchased many books from him as well

Henry Walters, Baltimore, possibly acquired from Gruel or Morgand before 1905 when it is published by Gruel as a book owned by Walters

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

Meyer, Paul. Catalogue de manuscrits très précieux du XIIIe au XVIIIe siècle... composant la collection de Madame la duchesse de B*** [Berry] [Texte imprimé] : Paris, Hôtel Drouot, salle n ° 7, 22 mars 1864, Me Charles Pillet, MM. Mannheim, p. 16, no. 3.

Quentin-Bauchart, Ernest. Les femmes bibliophiles de France. Vol. 1. Paris: Damascène Morgand Libraire, 1886; pp. 181-182.

Gruel, Leon. Manuel historique et bibliographique de l'amateur de reliures. Vol. 2. Paris: Gruel and Engelmann, 1905; p. 116 (illus.).

Quaritch, Bernard. A Catalogue of Illuminated and Other Manuscripts, Together with some Works on Paleography. London: Bernard Quatrich, Ltd, 1931; p. 38, ref. under lot 52.

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. 816, cat. no. 362.

Quaritch, Bernard. Catalogue 500. London, 1935; ref. under lot 246 [ex-Doheny Ms. 699, Camarillo, California, sold London, Christ's, December 2, 1987].

Baltimore Museum of Art. The Greek Tradition in Painting and the Minor Arts: an exhibition sponsored jointly by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Gallery from May 15 through June 25, 1939. Baltimore Museum of Art. 1939, p. 84, cat. no. 114.

Miner, Dorothy. The History of Bookbinding, 525-1950 A.D.. Exhibition Catalogue for Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1957; cat. no. 381, Pl. LXXVI.

Christie's. London, December, 2, 1987; p. 117, ref. under lot 179.

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. 648-649, app. 8.

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, 1989; pp. 200-201, cat. no. 242; figs. 466.

De Conihout, Isabelle. “Libri di propietà di Maria de’ Medici.” In Maria de' Medici. Una principessa fiorentina sul trono di Francia. Exhibition Catalogue for Florence, Museo degli argenti, 19 marzo-4 settembre 2005. Edited by Caterina Caneva and Francesco Solinas, pp. 366-368. Florence: Sillabe, 2005; p. 366.

Christie's. New York, June 27-28, 2006; Sale 1769, ref. under lot 285.

McFaddden, David. Slash: Paper Under the Knife. Exhibition Catalogue for New York, Museum of Art and Design, October 7, 2009-April 4, 2010. Milan: 5 Continents, 2009; pp. 14, 45.

Christie's. Sale 7915- The Arcana Collection, Part 2: Important Rare Books and Manuscripts. October 27, 2010; ref. under lot 22 ["Philippe Desportes, prieres du roy au saint esprit, in French, and penitential psalms and litany, in LATIN, illuminated cut-work text"].

Principal catalogers: Randall, Lilian M.C.; Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934

Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

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