Walters Ms. W.719, Book of Hours

W.719

Book of Hours

Book of Hours

This Book of Hours was completed ca. 1450, illuminated by the Master of Ghent Privileges and associates. The first owner is depicted in the border of fol. 13v as well as arms of the Egmont family of Guelders, found in the margins nearby. On front flyleaf iir, a note indicates that the manuscript was given by Francois de Bonge to an unidentified recipient in memory of a close friend. While many prayers are in Latin, there is a strong presence of French found in rubrics, headings, and several narratives (tales of a canon's dream sequence, the salvation of a nun, and directives for prayers that would result in a vision of the Virgin three days before the supplicant's death) paired with prayers and devotions in Latin.

Ca. 1450 CE

Flanders

Supplied name: Masters of the Ghent Privileges and associates

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 of reasonably good selection; last three added miniatures of thinner weight, added early; modern parchment flyleaves, bifoliate with facing pastedown

Foliation: ii+193+i

Modern pencil foliation, upper right corners, rectos (used here); folio marked A2, and referred here as front flyleaf ii, is actually integral to the first quire and is therefore technically a folio

Formula: Quire 1: 8 (Abis-7); Quire 2: 6 (fols. 8-13); Quires 3-16: 8 (fols. 14-125); Quire 17: 8, with added folio after fol. 128 (fols. 126-134); Quires 18-23: 8 (fols. 135-182); Quire 24: 4, with folios added after fols. 182, 184, 186 (fols. 182bis-188); Quire 25: 6, with sixth folio cancelled (fols. 189-193)

Catchwords: Extant catchwords begin on fol. 21v at lower right of folio, adjacent vertically at the spine-edge, most often a full or partial word followed by punctus of brown ink

Comments:

12.4 cm wide by 16.3 cm high

7.0 cm wide by 8.5 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 13
3. Ruled in grey-brown ink; does not apply to calendar: written area 7 x 8.5 cm, 1 column of 13 lines

fols. 1r - 193v:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Artist: Masters of the Ghent Privileges and associates
3. Text note: In Latin; calendar, select headings, devotional texts, and instructions to illuminator and/or compositor in French
4. Hand note: Textura
5. Decoration note: Nineteen miniatures total; eight extant full-page miniatures, four inserted with blank rectos; decorated illuminated initials on opposite folio of some full-page miniatures; eleven smaller miniatures (11-12 lines); borders frame full-page miniatures on three sides, arch at the top, multicolored with gold, designs are similar, although of a lesser caliber, on pages opposite small miniatures

fols. 1r - 12v:

1. Title: Calendar
2. Contents: Calendar less than half full, graded in red and brown; includes elements of Liège and Bruges; names preceded by various abbreviations of "Saint/e" followed by designations as bishop, martyr, etc.; feasts of note include: "Les troys Roys" (Jan. 6 + octave), Agnes (Jan. 21), Julianus (Jan. 28), Agatha (Feb. 5, "aghis"), Eleutherius (Feb. 20), Severinus (Feb. 23, regularly Oct. 23), Benedict (Mar. 21, "benoit abbe"; cf. Jul. 10), Peter martyr (Apr. 20, Dominican), Robert of Molesme (Apr. 29, Cistercian), Domitilla (May 7, rare), Seruatius (May 13), Benedict (Jul. 10), Lawrence (Aug. 10 "Leuren"), Bartholomew (Aug. 24, "Bertreme"), Louis of France (Aug. 25, "Lowis roy de france"), Bernard of Clairvaux (Aug. 27, "bernart abbe", Cistercian), Remacle (Sept. 3), Evurtius (Sept. 6, "euurte", regularly Sept. 7), Nativity of the Virgin (Sept. 7, regularly Sept. 8), Gorgonius (Sept. 8, regularly Sept. 9, rare), Theodard (Sept. 10), Lambert (Sept. 17), Maternus (Sept. 19), Maurice (Sept. 22, "meurisse ch[eva]l[ie]r"), Remigius (Oct. 1), Hubertus (Nov. 4), Elizabeth of Hungary (Nov. 19, "yzabial de hongrie", Franciscan tertiary), Catherine (Nov. 24, regularly Nov. 25), Grisogonius (Nov. 25, rare), Stephen (Dec. 26, "esteuiene")

fols. 13r - 67r:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Artist: Masters of the Ghent Privileges and associates
3. Rubric: Cursus beate marie. Ad mat.
4. Incipit: Domine labia mea
5. Contents: Use unidentified; three Matins lessons: (1) "Sancta maria virgo virginum. mater & filia . . . . R. Sancta & immaculata virginitas . . . . V. Benedicta tu . . . . (2) Sancta maria piarum piissima . . . . R. Beata es maria . . . . V. Ave maria gratia plena . . . . (3) Sancta dei genitrix que mervisti concipere . . . . R. Felix namque . . . . V. Ora pro populo interveni pro clero intercede pro deuoto femineo sexu . . . ."; fols. 22v-23v: "Te Deum", versicle "Ora pro nobis . . . ." Prime, anitphon and capitulary "Angelum domini" and "Ego sapientia"; None, antiphon and capitulary "Post partum" and "Et radicavi"; headings on versos before Lauds and Compline "In laudibus . . . Ad Completorium", Prime to Vespers headed "Ad . . . ." above text openings; fol. 13r: blank
6. Text note: Between rubric and incipit the scribe has included "Ave maria gratia plena"
7. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 13v; large decorated illuminated initial on fol. 14r with border; smaller miniatures on fols. 25r, 36v, 41v, 45v, 49v, 53v, 61v

fols. 67v - 122r:

1. Title: Office of the Dead (for use of Liège)
2. Artist: Masters of the Ghent Privileges and associates
3. Rubric: Vigilie defunctorum. Antiphona.
4. Incipit: Dilexi quoniam exaudiet dominus
5. Text note: Following the rubric the scribe has added "Placebo" most likely to make note of the antiphon "Placebo Domino"
6. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 67v; foliate border with decorated illuminated initial on fol. 68r

fols. 122v - 128v:

1. Title: Hours of the Compassion of the Virgin
2. Artist: Masters of the Ghent Privileges and associates
3. Rubric: Heures del compassion nostre dame
4. Incipit: Matris cor virgineum trina totum trivit
5. Contents: fols. 123r-127r: Hours of the Compassion of the Virgin; fols. 127r-128v: three prayers to Christ, Trinity, angels
6. Text note: Internal heading in Latin or French
7. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 122v

fols. 129r - 142v:

1. Title: Prayers to SS. Peter, James the Less, and Simon, suffrages to SS. Anthony and Sebastian
2. Rubric: De saint piere apostle
3. Incipit: Sancte petre princeps apostolorum
4. Contents: Prayers, mostly unrubricated; fols. 130r-136v: three prayers to SS Peter, James the Less, Simon; fols. 133r-136v: two suffrages to SS Anthony and Sebastian, the latter in rhyming scheme with prose antiphons; fols. 136v-142r: two devotions to the Virgin with identical headings, the second in rhyming scheme; fol. 129r: blank; fol. 142v: ruled, blank
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 129v; smaller miniatures on fols.: 131r, 132r, 133r, 134r;

fols. 143r - 156r:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms
2. Artist: Masters of the Ghent Privileges and associates
3. Incipit: Domine ne in furore
4. Text note: fol. 143r: blank
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 143v

fols. 156r - 162v:

1. Title: Litany, petitions, and collects
2. Rubric: Letania
3. Contents: Litany composed of Netherlandish and Northern French saints; twelve apostles/"ewangeliste", John Baptist to Luke; nine martyrs, some of which are Vincent, George, Lambert, Fabian, Sebastian, and Dionysius; fifteen confessors, including nine popes, followed by Servatius, Remacle, Hubert, Severinus, Aegydius, Remigius; thirteen virgins/widows/"continentes", of note: Felicitas, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Gertrude, Juliana, Margaret, Barbara, Mary Magdalene, Mary Egyptian, Catherine; petitions and invocations on fols 158v-160v; prayer on fols. 160v-161v; three collects, the second of which was associated with Liège by John Plummer, citing relics of saints in suppliant's church: "Concede quesumus omnipotens deus ut sancta dei genitrix virgo maria . . . atque omnes sancti quorum reliquie in ista continetur ecclesia . . . . Exaudi quesumus domine supplicum . . . . O. s. d. qui vivorum dominaris simul et mortuorum. . . ."
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 143v; foliate border with decorated illuminated initial on fol. 144r

fols. 162v - 172v:

1. Title: Devotions to the Virgin
2. Rubric: Chi commenche un tresuielle sieruiche de la glorieuse uiergene marie
3. Incipit: Un homme estoit de relotion qui cannone estoit
4. Contents: Fols. 163r-164v: Prayer that includes Five Joys of the Virgin, preceded, in French, by a narrative account of the dream-vision of the Virgin's appearance to a canon named Jernoul, her recitation of the prayer that follows and her promise to appear five times before death to all devout men and women reciting this prayer each Saturday; a transcription of the prayer that Jernoul found upon waking who later took it as proof to the bishop, who later gave testimony through preaching throughout the land
5. Text note: Latin text with French headings; narrative account of a canon named Jernoul in French

fols. 172v - 174r:

1. Title: Prayer of Indulgence for three hundred days
2. Rubric: Chi apres sensieut une orison bonne & deuote de nostre damme la queile une nonnain soloit oreir pour elle & pour tous crestiens. Par le [sic] queile orison elle fut apres son trespas des paines dinfier deliuree par les merittes & priiere de la glorieuse uiergene marie ensi que ses miracles tesmoignent. Et cheuls qui le dient ont trois Cens iours de uray pardon & est teile
3. Incipit: Sancta et perpetua virgo maria
4. Contents: fols. 172v-174r: Prayer of Indulgence for three hundred days, referring to the miracles of the Virgin, the Five Joys, Five Wounds of Christ, preceded by another narrative with a French heading recounting a nun's salvation for recitation of prayer

fols. 174r - 176r:

1. Title: Appellations of the Virgin
2. Rubric: Chi apres sensieuvent plusieurs notables mos de nostre damme et en yat .lxxii. nons. Et quiconcques les dirat pardeuant lymage de la glorieuse uierge (fol. 174v): marie chascun samedi en genouls auoec siept ave maria a la glorieuse uierge marie saparurat a luy trois iours deuant sa mort uisiblement et aurat le regne de paradis pardurablement.
3. Incipit: Diva virgo. flos nubes.
4. Contents: Seventy-two appellations of the Virgin, recited each Saturday along with reciting "Ave Maria" seven times in French while kneeling before image of the Virgin is said to be rewarded with a vision of the Virgin three days before one's death

fols. 176r - 178v:

1. Title: Communion prayers
2. Incipit: In sanctas et venerabiles manus
3. Contents: Communion prayers; concluding prayer on entering church with French headings; fol 177r: Ave verum corpus . . .; fol. 178r: Anima xristi sanctifica me . . .; fol 178v: Ave ihesu xriste fili dei uiui et gloriose uirginis miserere mei. Adoro te deum uerum. . .

fols. 179r - 182v:

1. Title: Suffrage to the Holy Face
2. Rubric: Quiconque lirat ceste orison qui sensieunt deuotement deuant lymage dou saint ueronike il acquiert .viii. ans de urais pardon et aultretant de .xl. Et se doublent les pardons es fiestes & junes. Et ossi ilh doublent es. iiii. temps.
3. Incipit: Salve sancta facies nostri redemptoris
4. Contents: In heading it is said when suffrage is read before the image of Veronica, 800 to 4,000 years of Indulgence is yielded, time spans doubled for recitation at certain liturgical seasons and unspecified feast days; fol. 179r: blank

fols. 182bisr - 193r:

1. Title: Devotional Sequence and suffrages
2. Rubric: Lewangille saint ihean
3. Incipit: In principio erat verbum
4. Contents: Fols. 183r-184r: Gospel extract from John 1:1-14; fols. 185r-186r and fols. 187r-193r: contemporary additions of two suffrages to female saints Catherine and Barbara respectively; fol. 186v: blank, ruled; fols. 189r-193r: Athanasian creed with French heading; fol. 182bisr: blank
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fols. 182bisv, 185v, 187v

fol. 13v:

1. 
2. Title: Virgin enthroned, revered by male manuscript owner
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Matins

fol. 25r:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Lauds

fol. 36v:

1. 
2. Title: Visitation
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Prime

fol. 41v:

1. 
2. Title: Nativity-Adoration, miraculous cure of withered hand of midwife Salome
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Terce

fol. 45v:

1. 
2. Title: Adoration of Magi
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Sext

fol. 49v:

1. 
2. Title: Presentation in the Temple
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: None

fol. 53v:

1. 
2. Title: Flight into Egypt
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Vespers

fol. 61v:

1. 
2. Title: Death of the Virgin
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Compline

fol. 67v:

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

fol. 122v:

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

fol. 129v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Peter
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Prayers to SS Peter, James the Less, and Simon: Peter

fol. 131r:

1. 
2. Title: St. James the Less
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Prayers to SS Peter, James the Less, and Simon

fol. 132r:

1. 
2. Title: St. Simon
3. Form: Small miniature, 11 lines
4. Text: Prayers to SS Peter, James the Less, and Simon

fol. 133r:

1. 
2. Title: St. Anthony
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Prayers to SS Peter, James the Less, and Simon

fol. 134r:

1. 
2. Title: Martyrdom of St. Sebastian
3. Form: Small miniature, 12 lines
4. Text: Prayers: St. Sebastian

fol. 143v:

1. 
2. Title: Last Judgment with Man of Sorrows
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms
5. Comment:

   Man of Sorrows is between two demi-angels drawing aside his mantle, and their collars are inscribed in pale ocher "Misericordia" and "Iusticia."

182bisv:

1. 
2. Title: St. Veronica holding veil with Holy Face
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrage to Holy Face

fol. 185v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Catherine
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Devotional Sequence and suffrages

fol. 187v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Barbara
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Devotional Sequences and suffrages

The binding is not original.

Rebound in Paris, ca. 1900, by Léon Gruel with red velvet; page edges gilt; resewn on four cords

Created ca. 1450; illuminated by the Master of Ghent Privileges and associates; first owner depicted in border (fol. 13v)

Gifted to an unknown recipient by later owner Francois de Bonge in memory of a close friend in 1671: "Ce presente livre est presenté de francois de Bonge en memoire de la personne asses tres intime a moy de Jurenne le. . . 12 Mars lan 1671"

Acquired by Léon Gruel, Paris, ca. 1900; identified armorial shield affixed to flyleaf i as that of the Egmont family, thus changing from French to Flemish attribution

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel for 15,000 francs, ca. 1906

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

Scillia, Diane. "The Master of the Tiburtine Sibyl's Raising of Lazarus (Mexico City, San Carlos Museum) and the Early Haarlem School of Painting Reconsidered." In Tributes in Honor of James H. Marrow: Studies in Painting and Manuscript Illumination of the late Middle Ages and Northern Renaissance. Edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburger, James H. Marrow, and A. S. Korteweg, 453-464. Turnhout, Belgium: Harvey Miller, 2006; p. 458 (fig. 4).

Clark, Gregory T. "'Made In Flanders' and the Master of the Ghent Privileges: A Second Coda." In Tributes in Honor of James H. Marrow: Studies in Painting and Manuscript Illumination of the late Middle Ages and Northern Renaissance. Edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburger, James H. Marrow, and A. S. Korteweg, 155-172. Turnhout, Belgium: Harvey Miller, 2006; p. 156.

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. 21, 27, 32, 35, 40, 44, 55, 61, 68, 83, 103 (nn. 2, 17, 29), 104 (n. 50), 115-121, 129, 131, 135, 139-140, 164-167, 173, 195-197, color fig. 17, figs. 139-50.

Noel, William. "Books in the Home: Psalters and Books of Hours." In Medieval Mastery: Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bold (800-1475). Edited by William Noel and Lee Preedy, 56-67. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002; pp. 63, 64 (fig. 11).

Smith, Kathryn A. Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-century England: Three Women and Their Books of Hours. London: The British Library, 2003; pp. 248, 345.

Van Bergen, Saskia. “The Production of Flemish Books of Hours for the English Market.” In Manuscripts in transition: Recycling Manuscripts, Texts, and Images. Proceedings of the International Congres held in Brussels (5-9 November 2002). Edited by Brigitte Dekeyzer and Jan van der Stock, 271-284. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2005; p. 281.

Vanwijnsberghe, Dominique. "Le cycle d'enfance des petites de la vierge dans les livres d'heures des pays-bas méridionaux." In Manuscripten en miniaturen: Studies aangeboden aan Anne S. Korteweg bij haar afscheid van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Boekhandel. Nieuwe Reeks (8). Edited by Jos Biemans, Klaas van der Hoek, Kathryn M. Rudy, and Ed van der Vlist, 355-366. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2007; p. 365.

Sponsler, Claire. Drama and Resistance: Bodies, Goods, and Theatricality in Late Medieval England. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997; pp. 115 (fig. 3), 190 (n. 38).

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. 788, cat. no. 193.

E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting (Cambridge, Mass., 1953) pp. 121, 123, 124.

Cardon, B, R. Livens, and M. Smeyers, Typologische Taferelen uit het leven van Jezus: A Manuscript from the Gold Scrolls Group (Burges, ca. 1440) in Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, Ms. Morgan 649 (Louvain, 1985), p. 159.

Exhibition and Sale Catalogues: London, Sotheby's, Nov. 26, 1985, red. under lot 127.

Dogaer, Georges. Flemish Miniature Painting in the 15th and 16th Centuries. Amsterdam: B.M. Israël, 1987; p. 36.

Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. Exhibition Catalogue. Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery. NY: George Braiziller, 1988; pp. 115, 165, 210, cat. no. 86, Fig. 93.

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. 193-200 (ref. under cat. no. 241, W. 719).

Vlaamse miniaturen voor van Eyck (ca. 1380-ca. 1420) Catalogus, pref. L. Van den Brande. Corpus van verluchte hanschriften 6, Low Countries Series 4 (Louvain, 1993), p. 156, ref. under no. 50: PML M.46.

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Herbold, Rebekah

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Contributors: Emery, Doug; Herbold, Rebekah; Noel, William; 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.