Walters Ms. W.95, Book of Hours

W.95

Book of Hours

Book of Hours

This Book of Hours was completed ca. 1320-30 in the region of Ghent. The presence of the Hours of the Cross attributed to Pope John XXII (1316-1334) provides evidence that helps date the manuscript. The text is written in three languages, with the main text in Latin, Flemish prayers on fols. 123r-125v and fols. 131r-141r, and French rubrics throughout. Made for a woman portrayed kneeling before the cross on fol. 116v, this manuscript is decorated with twenty-four extant historiated initials and drolleries for each canonical hour.

Early 14th century CE

Flanders (Ghent?)

Book

Devotional

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

Parchment

Medium weight parchment, fair selection and preparation; red and blue speckled pigment on page edges; paper patch on fols. 28 and 159; modern parchment flyleaves, bifoliate with facing pastedown

Foliation: i+166+i

Modern pencil foliation, upper right corners, rectos (used here); another set of foliation in lower right corners, numbers are not consecutive

Formula: Quire 1: 4 (fols. 1-4); Quire 2: 2, with third folio attached (fols. 5-7); Quires 3-5: 8 (fols. 8-31); Quire 6: 8, lacking third and sixth folios (fols. 32-37); Quires 7-8: 8 (fols. 38-53); Quire 9: 8, lacking first and third folios (fols. 54-59); Quires 10-12: 8 (fols. 60-75); Quire 13: 6, with seventh folio tipped in (fols. 76-83); Quires 14-22: 8 (fols. 84-162); Quire 23: 4, minus the fourth folio (fols. 163-166)

Catchwords: None

Signatures: Modern pencil quire signatures added in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century, perhaps at the time of rebinding

Comments:

10.3 cm wide by 14.8 cm high

7.2 cm wide by 9.8 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 15
3. Ruled in brown ink; layout does not apply to calendar (32 lines, written surface 13.3 x 7 cm, ruled in lead)

fols. 1r - 166v:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Contents: Book of Hours in three languages Latin, Flemish, and French with added prayers; calendar is incomplete; missing Office of the Dead
3. Hand note: Textura quadrata; Calendar in textura semi-quadrata; fols. 5r-7r: fifteenth century hand imitating littera humanistica formata
4. Decoration note: Twenty-four historiated initials extant (5 lines); enlarged decorated initials in burnished gold mark secondary text divisions (2-4 lines); small flourished gold initials throughout (1 line); folios containing historiated initials also have decorated borders with drolleries; rubrics in red; text in brown or brown-black ink

fols. 1r - 4v:

1. Title: Calendar
2. Contents: Calendar lacks January through April; months quarter-full; graded in red and brown; Egyptian days designated; saints of note for Flemish use: Amelberga (July 10), Eligius (Dec. 1), Bavo (Oct. 1), and Thomas Becket (Feb. 21)

fols. 5r - 7v:

1. Title: Added prayer
2. Incipit: Dilectissime Domine Iesu Christi
3. Contents: Prayer added in the fifteenth century

fols. 8r - 45v:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea
3. Contents: Hours of the Virgin for Use of Rome; lacking folios at the beginning of None and Vespers after fols. 33 and 35; fols. 44r-45v: four Suffrages to SS. Nicholas, Martin, Catherine, and Mary Magdalene
4. Decoration note: Six historiated initials and drolleries mark the hours on fols. 8r, 15r, 24v, 28r, 31v, 41r

fols. 45v - 57v:

1. Title: Long Hours of the Holy Spirit
2. Rubric: Chi apries sensiwent les eures dou saint esperit. A Matines.
3. Incipit: Domine labia mea
4. Contents: Hours of the Holy Spirit, lacking beginning of Vespers after fol. 54r; fols. 57v-82r: Office of the Virgin for each day of the week
5. Text note: Headings in French and Latin
6. Decoration note: Six historiated initials on fols. 46r, 48r, 49v, 51v, 53r, and 56v

fols. 57v - 82r:

1. Title: Weekday Office of the Virgin
2. Incipit: Eructavit cor meum verbum

fols. 82v - 97v:

1. Title: Hours of the Cross
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea
3. Decoration note: Seven gold inhabited initials fols. 82v, 85r, 88r, 90v, 93r, 95r, and 96v

fols. 99r - 116v:

1. Title: Hours of the Trinity
2. Incipit: Deus in adiutorium meum
3. Decoration note: Two inhabited gold initials fols. 99r and 103r

fols. 116v - 122v:

1. Title: Hours of the Cross of Pope John XXII
2. Incipit: Domine labia mea aperies
3. Contents: Hours of the Cross of Pope John XXII; fols. 116v-121v: Matins; fols. 121v-122r: Suffrage of the True Cross; fols. 122r-v: Indulgence prayer of Pope John XXII
4. Decoration note: One historiated gold initial on fol. 116v, and drolleries for the beginning of the Hours; gold initials inhabited by animals or nomina sacra (2 to 3 lines)

fols. 123r - 146v:

1. Title: Prayers
2. Incipit: O God die van suader
3. Contents: Fols. 123r-125v: prayers in Flemish; fols. 125v-131r: Psalms in Latin; fols. 131r-141r: prayers in Flemish; fols. 141r-146v: prayers in Latin to the wounds, the Virgin, John the Evangelist, the Cross, the guardian angel
4. Decoration note: One gold historiated initial on fol. 123r, and drolleries

fols. 147r - 157r:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms
2. Incipit: Domine ne in furore
3. Decoration note: One historiated gold initial on fol. 147r, and drolleries

fols. 157r - 164r:

1. Title: Litany, Petitions, and invocations
2. Rubric: La letanie grande
3. Incipit: Kyrieleyson
4. Contents: Fols. 157r-160r: Litany with Flemish and Northern French saints, including St. John the Baptist as only patriarch/prophet; sixteen evangelists/disciples/apostles from Peter to Barnabas; sixteen martyrs including Livin, George, Adrian, Quintinus, Lam[bert?], fourteen extant confessors (originally twenty, but corner torn) including five popes, with others such as Benedict, Nicholas, Remigius, Aegydius, Eligius, Brictius, Ambrose, Wandregisil, and Arnulph; eighteen virgins including Mary Magdalene, Mary Egyptian, Catherine, Amalberga, Brigid, Gertrude, Adelgund, Pharaildis (of note as patroness of Ghent); fols. 160r-162v: Petitions, invocations, and cues; fols. 162v-164r: Invocation and versicles

fols. 164v - 166v:

1. Title: Gospel sequence of St. John and benedictions
2. Rubric: Inicium sancti Ewangelii secundum Johannem
3. Incipit: In principio erat verbum
4. Contents: Fols. 164v-165r: Gospel sequence of St. John; fols. 166r-v: benedictions before and after a meal

fol. 8r:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 7 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Matins

fol. 15r:

1. 
2. Title: Visitation
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 3 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Lauds

fol. 24v:

1. 
2. Title: Nativity
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Prime

fol. 28r:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation to the Shepherds
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Terce

fol. 31v:

1. 
2. Title: Adoration of the Magi
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Sext

fol. 41r:

1. 
2. Title: Flight into Egypt
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Compline

fol. 46r:

1. 
2. Title: Trinity
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 6 lines
4. Text: Long Hours of the Holy Spirit: Matins

fol. 48r:

1. 
2. Title: St. John the Evangelist
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 2 lines
4. Text: Long Hours of the Spirit: Lauds

fol. 49v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Peter
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Long Hours of the Holy Spirit: Prime

fol. 51v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Paul
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Long Hours of the Holy Spirit: Terce

fol. 53r:

1. 
2. Title: St. James the Great
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Long Hours of the Holy Spirit: Sext

fol. 56v:

1. 
2. Title: Pentecost
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 5 lines
4. Text: Long Hours of the Holy Spirit: Compline

fol. 82v:

1. 
2. Title: Betrayal
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross: Matins

fol. 85r:

1. 
2. Title: Christ before Pilate
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross: Lauds

fol. 88r:

1. 
2. Title: Flagellation
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross: Prime

fol. 90v:

1. 
2. Title: Christ Carrying the Cross
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross: Terce

fol. 93r:

1. 
2. Title: Deposition
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross: Nones

fol. 95r:

1. 
2. Title: Entombment
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross: Vespers

fol. 96v:

1. 
2. Title: Resurrection
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross: Compline

fol. 99r:

1. 
2. Title: Noli Me Tangere
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Trinity: Vespers

fol. 103r:

1. 
2. Title: Throne of Mercy
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 4 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Trinity: Matins

fol. 116v:

1. 
2. Title: Woman kneeling before the crucifix
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Hours of the Cross of Pope John XXII: Matins

fol. 123r:

1. 
2. Title: Christ enthroned; top margin: hand of God cradles gold circle
3. Form: Historiated initial "O," 4 lines
4. Text: Prayer: "O God die..."

fol. 147r:

1. 
2. Title: David praying before the altar
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 5 lines
4. Text: Penitential Psalms: Psalm 6

The binding is not original.

Late nineteenth-early twentieth-century crimson velvet binding; made by Léon Gruel; no. 936 written in pencil front pastedown

Made in Flanders in the early fourteenth century

Jacobi Santens Cercenasen, sixteenth century; note of possession on fol. 98r, "ad usum mei Jacobi Santens Cercenasen et omnium amicorum" and "emi eiusdem Jacobi santens ego ..." (effaced)

Léon Gruel, Paris, before 1931

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Léon Gruel by before 1931

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

De Ricci, Seymour, and William J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 784, cat. no. 171.

Oliver, Judith H. Gothic Manuscript Illumination in the Diocese of Liège (c. 1250-1350). Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts from the Low Countries, 3. Vol. 1. Leuven: Peeters, 1988; p. 94 (n. 14).

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, 1997; pp. 85-91, cat. no. 226.

Joslin, Mary Coker and Carolyn Coker Joslin Watson. The Egerton Genesis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001; p. 223.

Bennett, Adelaide. "Christ's Five Wounds in the Aves of the Vita Christi in a Book of Hours about 1300."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 and A.S. Korteweg, 75-84. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2006; pp. 82-84.

Oliver, Judith H. "Te Matrem Laudamus:The Many Roles of Mary in a Liège Psalter Hours in Cambridge." In The Cambridge Illuminations: The Conference Papers. Edited by Stella Panayotova, 159-172. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2007; p. 161.

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Catalogers: Herbert, Lynley; Valle, Chiara

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Bucca, Lauren; Emery, Doug; Noel, William; Schuele, Allyson; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Wiegand, Kimber

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-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.