Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Book of Hours, use of Bourges

Other related names

• Minns, Susan B., former owner (https://viaf.org/viaf/7299199)
• Lewis, John Frederick, 1860-1932, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/63874811/)
• Lewis, Anne Baker, former owner

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Lewis E 86
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1457696
• deRicci: 79
• Leaves-of-gold: 31

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin; Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)

Origin

Place

Bourges?, France

Summary

This richly decorated Book of Hours of the Use of Bourges was produced around the year 1500. The calendar, in French (fols. 1r-12v), includes several saints local to Bourges highlighted in gold, and is accompanied by border vignettes of the zodiacal signs and labors of the month, each enclosed within a golden aedicula. The Book of Hours includes: the Gospel Lessons; the Passion according to John; the Hours of the Virgin of the Use of Bourges followed by the Hours of the Cross and Hours of the Holy Spirit; the Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers; the Office of the Dead; and Suffrages including a prayer to Saint Symphorien of Auxerre (fol. 148r). The Gospel Lessons are introduced with a large miniature of Saint John on Patmos (fol. 13r) with two secondary scenes in vignettes below, and include further small miniatures for Luke, Matthew, and Mark, inset within the subsequent text; the Obsecro te prayer (fols. 19v-23r), introduced with a small inset miniature of the Virgin and Child with Angels, follows the Gospel Lessons directly. The remaining large miniatures at the beginning of each textual section are enclosed within elaborate architectural frames painted in shell gold, which include canopied niches on the outer margins enclosing figures in demi-grisaille, and, apart from the two full-page Annunciation miniatures forming the double-page opening for the Hours of the Virgin (fols. 34v-35r), include lower-level vignettes related to the main scene but separated from it by the text block. The miniature of David and Bathsheba (fol. 96r), which introduces the Penitential Psalms, includes a landscape view of the famous castle of Mehun-sur-Yèvre, made famous by Jean, Duc de Berry. Pages containing the miniature for the Hours of the Holy Spirit and the miniature for the Suffrage to Saint Margaret are missing. The miniatures are by an unidentified artist likely active in Bourges, and associated with Jacquelin de Montluçon, the Master of the Moneypenny Breviary, and the Master of Spencer 6. The verso of the final folio (fol. 153v) contains an elaborate heraldic achievement, likely dating from soon after the production of the manuscript, with arms (azure, a fleur-de-lys or, party per pale azure, an eagle gules) that have been attributed, probably incorrectly, to the Haland de Saint Hermine de Vattier family.

Notes

• Third upper flyleaf is an early or original parchment singleton
   
• One leaf with the end of Hours of the Cross and the beginning of Hours of the Holy Spirit (and associated large miniature) lacking between fols. 92 and 93; one leaf with the end of the suffrage to Saint Veronica and the beginning of the suffrage to Saint Margaret (and associated small miniature) missing between fols. 149 and 150
   

Extent

Iii+153+ii; 165 x 105 mm bound to 168 x 110 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto

Collation

1-2 (6), 3-12 (8), 13 (3, +3), 14-19 (8), 20 (8, -7), 21 (3, +1)

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

Original horizontal catchwords in center of lower margin visible at fols.: 20v; 28v; 36v; 44v; 52v; 60v; 68v; 103v; 111v; 119v; 127v; 135v

Binding

French, parchment over pasteboard, late nineteenth century, red-lettered spine inscribed: "Heures nouvelles"; red clamshell case

Layout

One column of eighteen lines, ruled in red ink: written area: 80 x 50 mm

Decoration

Twenty-four marginal calendar vignettes alternating between labors of the months (recto) and signs of the zodiac (verso); one double-page miniature; twelve large miniatures; fifteen quarter-page miniatures; one full-page coat of arms; foliate panel borders with differing designs, birds, and insects on most outer margins

Script

Bâtarde

Provenance

• Coat of arms on fol. 153v, thought to be those of Haland de Sainte Hermine de Vattier, mid-sixteenth century; Susan B. Minns (sold at American Art Association, 2-3 May 1922, lot 417, illus.); John Frederick Lewis, Philadelphia; given by his widow, Anne Baker Lewis, to the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1936
   

Related resources

• American Art Association, Collection of Miss Susan Minns of Boston, Mass.; Books, Bookplates, Coins, Curios, Prints, Illuminated Manuscripts and Horae Illustrative of "The Dance of Death," to be sold May 2nd and 3rd, 1922 (Greenwich, Conn.: Condé Nast, 1922), lot 417.
• De Ricci, Seymour, with the assistance of W. J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, vol. 2 (New York,: H. W. Wilson, 1935-40), p. 2038, no. 79.
• Free Library of Philadelphia, A Descriptive Catalogue of the John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts in the Free Library of Philadelphia, compiled by Edwin Wolf, 2nd, with an introduction by Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach (Philadelphia: The Library, 1937), p. 94-95, no. 86.
• Free Library of Philadelphia, Saints, Scribes, and Scholars: An Exhibition of Illuminated Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the Collections of the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Compiled by Satoko I. Parker, Walter A. Frankel, and Marie E. Korey (Philadelphia: The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1988), p. 16, with illus. on facing page.
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Leaves of Gold: Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections, edited by James R. Tanis (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001), pp. 102-103, no. 31.
• Hourihane, Colum, ed., Time in the Medieval World: Occupations of the Months & Signs of the Zodiac in the Index of Christian Art (Princeton: Index of Christian Art and The Dept. of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University, 2007), pp. 106, 145, 156, 183, 189, 205, 229, 271, 296, 303, 313, 321.
• Monier, Katja, "Vision and devotion in Bourges around 1500: an illuminator and his world" (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2014), p. 49 n. 233, p. 171, figs. 3.3.42, 4.8.17, 4.8.18.

Keywords

• 16th century
• French
• France
• Book of Hours
• Illustration
• Miniature
• Illumination
• Christian
• Devotion
• Private devotional text
• 15th century

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E 86: Book of Hours, use of Bourges are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Free Library of Philadelphia Lewis E 86: Book of Hours, use of Bourges. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — Calendar, in French, Bourges Use
• fol. 13r — Gospel Lessons and Obsecro te
• fol. 23v — Passion according to John
• fol. 35r — Hours of the Virgin
• fol. 90r — Hours of the Cross (end lacking)
• fol. 93r — Hours of the Holy Spirit (beginning and miniature lacking)
• fol. 96r — Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers
• fol. 113r — Office of the Dead
• fol. 144r — Suffrages
• Inside back cover — Modern notes in pencil

Decorations

• fol. 1r — Border vignette, Feasting
• fol. 1v — Border vignette, Aquarius
• fol. 2r — Border vignette, Keeping warm
• fol. 2v — Border vignette, Pisces
• fol. 3r — Border vignette, Pruning vines
• fol. 3v — Border vignette, Aries
• fol. 4r — Border vignette, Archery
• fol. 4v — Border vignette, Taurus
• fol. 5r — Border vignette, Horse riding
• fol. 5v — Border vignette, Gemini
• fol. 6r — Border vignette, Mowing
• fol. 6v — Border vignette, Cancer
• fol. 7r — Border vignette, Reaping
• fol. 7v — Border vignette, Leo
• fol. 8r — Border vignette, Threshing
• fol. 8v — Border vignette, Virgo
• fol. 9r — Border vignette, Treading grapes
• fol. 9v — Border vignette, Libra
• fol. 10r — Border vignette, Thrashing for acorns
• fol. 10v — Border vignette, Scorpio
• fol. 11r — Border vignette, Slaughtering a pig
• fol. 11v — Border vignette, Sagittarius
• fol. 12r — Border vignette, Baking bread
• fol. 12v — Border vignette, Capricorn
• fol. 13r — Large miniature, Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos
• fol. 13r — Small miniature, Saint John the Evangelist and the poisoned chalice
• fol. 13r — Small miniature, Saint John the Evangelist on a ship
• fol. 15r — Small miniature, Saint Luke
• fol. 16v — Small miniature, Saint Matthew
• fol. 18v — Small miniature, Saint Mark
• fol. 19v — Small miniature, Virgin and Child
• fol. 23v — Full-page miniature, Agony in the Garden
• fol. 23v — Border vignette, Sleeping Apostles
• fol. 23v — Marginal figure, Soldier
• fol. 34v — Full-page miniature, Archangel Gabriel
• fol. 34v — Marginal figure, Angel with harp
• fol. 35r — Full-page miniature, The Virgin Annunciate
• fol. 35r — Marginal figure, Angel with harp
• fol. 53v — Large miniature, Visitation
• fol. 53v — Border vignette, Mary and Joseph
• fol. 53v — Marginal figure, Sibyl
• fol. 65v — Large miniature, Nativity
• fol. 65v — Border vignette, Mary and Joseph putting the Christ Child to bed
• fol. 65v — Marginal figure, Angel in prayer
• fol. 71r — Large Miniature, Annunciation to the Shepherds
• fol. 71r — Border vignette, Amorous couple and shepherd
• fol. 71r — Marginal figure, Shepherd
• fol. 75r — Large miniature, Adoration of the Magi
• fol. 75r — Border vignette, Journey of the Magi
• fol. 75r — Marginal figure, Moor in armor
• fol. 78v — Large miniature, Presentation in the Temple
• fol. 78v — Border vignette, Mary and Joseph at the Temple Steps
• fol. 78v — Marginal figure, Prophet
• fol. 82r — Large miniature, Flight into Egypt
• fol. 82r — Border vignette, Miracle of the Wheat Field
• fol. 82r — Marginal figure, Soldier
• fol. 85r — Large miniature, Coronation of the Virgin
• fol. 85r — Border vignette, Angels with musical instruments
• fol. 85r — Marginal figure, Angel in prayer
• fol. 90r — Large miniature, Crucifixion
• fol. 90r — Border vignette, Soldiers casting lots
• fol. 90r — Marginal figure, Soldier
• fol. 96r — Large miniature, David and Bathsheba
• fol. 96r — Border vignette, David sending Uriah into Battle
• fol. 96r — Marginal figure, Soldier
• fol. 113r — Large miniature, The Three Living and the Three Dead
• fol. 113r — Border vignette, Skulls
• fol. 113r — Marginal figure, Prophet
• fol. 144r — Small miniature, Trinity
• fol. 144v — Small miniature, Saint Michael
• fol. 145v — Small miniature, Saint John the Baptist
• fol. 146r — Small miniature, Saint Stephen
• fol. 146v — Small miniature, Saint Sebastian
• fol. 148r — Small miniature, Saint Symphorien
• fol. 148v — Small miniature, Saint Francis
• fol. 149r — Small miniature, Saint Veronica
• fol. 150v — Small miniature, Saint Catherine
• fol. 151r — Small miniature, Saint Barbara
• fol. 152r — Small miniature, Saint Apollonia
• fol. 153v — Heraldic achievement with helm, dragon, tiger(?) and wolf(?) supporting the Haland de St. Hermine de Vattier(?) coat of arms