Walters Ms. W.918, Book of Hours in Dutch

W.918

Book of Hours in Dutch

This Book of Hours was created in Zwolle, Netherlands, ca. 1470. It belongs to the group of “Sarijs manuscripts,” which was named after the erroneous citation in most works that identifies the manuscripts as belonging to the same group of “Sarijs” instead of “Marijs” on January 19 of their calendars (also found in W. 918). In a study of this group by Lydia Wierda, the author suggests that these manuscripts were copied by students at the school of the Brethren of the Common Life in Zwolle and also decorated and illustrated in that city (although possibly by professional illuminators) during the period ca. 1470-90 (see Wierda, De Sarijs-handschriften). All of the principal decorative schemes and motifs in W.918, as well as the compositions of its miniatures, have close counterparts in other manuscripts belonging to the group.

Ca. 1470 CE

Zwolle, Netherlands

Supplied name: Masters of the Zwolle Bible

Book

Devotional

The primary language in this manuscript is Dutch; Flemish.

Parchment

Well-finished, thin to medium-weight, cream-colored parchment

Foliation: i+192+ii

Modern pencil foliation in upper right corners on rectos; flyleaves of seventeenth-century laid paper

Formula: i, 1-2(6), 3(10,-10), 4-6(8), 7(6), 8-9(8), 10(10,-1), 11-12(8), 13(14,-1,2), 14-15(8), 16(8,-1), 17(10-10), 18(8), 19(6-1,2), 20(10,-10), 21-23(8), 24(6,-1), 25(6), ii

Catchwords: None

Signatures: None

Comments: Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 7(2), 13(3), 22(4), 30(5), 38(6), 46(7), 52(8), 60(9), 68(10), 77(11), 85(12), 93(13), 105(14), 113(15), 121(16), 128(17), 137(18), 145(19), 149(20), 158(21), 166(22), 174(23), 182(24), 187(25); slice marks near the gutter on fol. 51 suggesting that a miniature has been excised before the beginning of the Hours of the Cross on fol. 52r (possibly the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane that is now cut down and pasted in as fol. 104v, if not a different subject, such as the Crucifixion); as indicated by a stub after fol. 84, probably lacking a full-page miniature formerly inserted before the beginning of the Hours of the Holy Spirit on fol. 77r (possibly Pentecost); possibly lacking a full-page miniature formerly inserted before the beginning of the Hours of the Eternal Wisdom on fol. 105r (subject uncertain); miniature of the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, which has been pasted onto a blank verso as fol. 104v, not a customary subject to illustrate the text, and with its inner edge not matching the contours of the stub before fol. 105 appears to have been added

9.8 cm wide by 14.4 cm high

6.0 cm wide by 8.6 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 19
3. Ruled in brown ink (single bounding lines, full across)

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Hand note: Written in Gothic bookhand
3. Decoration note: Four full-page miniatures surviving; six half-page historiated initials (10 lines) with wide borders; twenty-nine small decorative initials (5 lines) in gold against blue and pink grounds with foliate growths in the margins; small undecorated initials in red and blue throughout (1-2 lines); KL in calendar in blue on rectos; rubrics in red; text in brown ink

1. Title: Calendar
2. Rubric: Januarius
3. Text note: Calendar almost full; Use of Utrecht; graded in red and black
4. Decoration note: KL in blue on rectos

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Rubric: Hier beghint die vrouwen tijde
3. Incipit: Here du salte opdoen
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 13v; historiated initial on fol. 14r

1. Title: Long Hours of the Cross
2. Rubric: Hier beghint die cruces ghetide
3. Incipit: Here Ihesu Christe wi aenbeden
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature missing before fol. 52; historiated initial on fol. 52r

1. Title: Long Hours of the Holy Spirit
2. Rubric: Hier beghint die hilige geest tide
3. Incipit: Here du salte opdoen
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature missing before fol. 77; historiated initial on fol. 77r

1. Title: Hours of the Eternal Wisdom
2. Rubric: Hier beghint die wijsheits getide
3. Incipit: Mijne siele hevet die begheert
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 104v; historiated initial on fol. 105r

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms and litany
2. Rubric: Hier beghint die seuen Psalme
3. Incipit: Here in dijnre uerbolghentheit
4. Text note: St. Martin the first confessor in the litany, St. Agnes the first virgin
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 128v; historiated initial on fol. 129r

1. Title: Office of the Dead
2. Rubric: Hier beghint die langhe vigili
3. Incipit: Mij hebben ommebeuanghen
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 149v; historiated initial on fol. 150r

1. Title: Prayers and suffrages
2. Contents: Fol. 187r-v: for Communion: Vanden hilighen sacramente (O here huden beghere ic toe ontfaen) [Achten-Knaus, 4, fol. 152r]; fols. 187v-188r: after Communion: Na die ontfancnis (Danc seg ic iu almachtighe God wanttu mi onweerdighe) [version of Gratias tibi ago, Domine sancte, pater omnipotens, eterne Deus ... from the missal, Achten-Knaus, 3, fol. 178r]; fols. 188r-189r: to Mary: Van onse vrou (O alre heilichste O alre soetste O alre guedertierenste) [version of Achten-Knaus, 29, fol. 205v(?), see W.165, fol. 97v]; fol. 189r-v: to one’s guardian angel: Van dinen enghel (O heilighe enghel mijns) [Meertens, VI, 18, 20] + Vs, collect; fols. 189v-190r: to St. Barbara: Van sancte Barbara (O heilighe martelaersche cristi Barbara) [Lieftinck, p. 209, fol. 213v]; fols. 190v-192r: to St. Erasmus: Van sancte Herasmus hilige martelar (Sancte Herasme heilige martelaer) [Meertens, VI, 3, 17] + Vs, collect

fol. 13v:

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

fol. 14r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "H" with the Apocalyptic Madonna and Child
3. Form: Historiated initial "H," 10 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: matins

fol. 52r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "H" with Man of Sorrows accompanied by the Arma Christi
3. Form: Historiated initial "H," 10 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross: matins

fol. 77r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "H" with the Throne of Grace Trinity
3. Form: Historiated initial "H," 10 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit: matins

fol. 104v:

1. 
2. Title: Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Eternal Wisdom

fol. 105r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "M" with Christ blessing
3. Form: Historiated initial "M," 10 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Eternal Wisdom: matins

fol. 128v:

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

fol. 129r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "H" with King David kneeling in prayer
3. Form: Historiated initial "H," 10 lines
4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms

fol. 149v:

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

fol. 150r:

1. 
2. Title: Initial "M" with two souls praying in purgatory
3. Form: Historiated initial "M," 10 lines
4. Text: Office of the Dead

The binding is not original.

Late seventeenth-century Dutch binding; cream- colored vellum over pasteboard, gold-tooled; outer frame of double gold fillets enclosing an inner frame of the same, with canted gold crowns at the outside of each of the four corners (possibly bound in Amsterdam, ca. 1695 in the workshop of Albert Magnus; a virtually identical binding reproduced in Foot, Eloquent Witnesses); sewn on five raised bands; spine gold-tooled in six panels; edges speckled red

Created by the "Sarijs group" of the Brethren of the Common Life in Zwolle, Netherlands, ca. 1470 (armorial device found on fol. 52r, but may be decorative and not indicate original ownership)

Charles W. Reynell, London, ca. 1860 (ownership inscription in ink on back pastedown)

C. H. Reynell, Memphis, Tennessee, by descent (his sales at Sotheby's, London, July 5-7, and July 26-28, 1937)

Dmitri Tselos, Minnesota, 1941, by purchase in Europe

George Tselos and Susan E. Tselos, by descent

Museum purchase and partial donation by George Tselos and Susan E. Tselos in memory of their father, Dimitri Tselos, 2006. Purchased through Michael Laird.

Wierda, Lydia S. De Sarijs-handschriften. Studie naar een groep laat-middeleeuwse handschriften uit de IJsselstreek (voorheen toegeschreven aan de Agnieteberg bij Zwolle). Zwolle, Netherlands: Wanders, 1995.

Foot, Mirjam M., ed. Eloquent Witnesses: Bookbindings and their History. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2004, p. 46, fig. 9.

Principal cataloger: Marrow, James

Catalogers: Herbert, Lynley; Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934

Editors: Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William

Copy editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Boot, Christine; Dutschke, Consuelo; Emery, Doug; Noel, William; Pizzinato, Riccardo; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara

The Walters Art Museum

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