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

Title

Book of Hours, use of Rome

Other related names

• Liberale, da Verona, approximately 1445-1529, artist (http://viaf.org/viaf/20475480/)
• Piccolomini, Artemesia, former owner
• 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 118
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1457700
• deRicci: 99
• Leaves-of-gold: 30

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Italy

Summary

This compact Book of Hours, housed in a worn but apparently original brocade binding with original silver clasps, was produced around 1470 in Siena and contains three miniatures painted by Liberale da Verona. These small and extremely refined miniatures represent Christ as Man of Sorrows supported by Angels (fol. 91v), Death standing in a landscape (fol. 95v), and the penitent King David (fol. 132v). The script is humanistic in style with some characteristics of Italian Rotunda. The manuscript begins with a calendar for Dominican Use (fols. 2r-13v), followed by the Hours of the Virgin for the Use of Rome (fols. 15r-91r), the Hours of the Cross (fols. 92r-95r), the Office of the Dead (fols. 95r-131v), and the Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers (fols. 133r-155r). The incipit pages for the four major textual sections are decorated with full white-vine or "bianchi girari" scroll borders that connect to the illuminated initials contained within. Smaller white vine initials, with no illuminated borders, mark the post-Matins sections of the Hours of the Virgin.

Notes

• Several entries in calendar suggest Dominican Use, including Saints Thomas Aquinas (translation Jan. 28 and Mar. 7); Peter Martyr (April 29); and Dominic (translation May 24 and Aug. 5)
   
• Prayers on fols. 151r-155r include Psalm 69 followed by versicles and responses; "Deus cui p[ro]priu[m] e[st] misereri . . . ut q[uo]s delictoru[m] cathena co[n]stringit"; "Exaudi q[uesumu]s d[omi]ne supplicum preces" (fol. 152v); "Deus q[ui] culpa offende[r]is" (fol. 153r); "Deus a q[uo] s[an]c[t]a desideria recta consilia" (fol. 153v); and "Fidelium d[eu]s o[mn]iu[m] conditor et rede[m]ptor" (fol. 154r)
   

Extent

155; 127 x 90 mm bound to 134 x 95 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto

Collation

1 (14), 2-14 (10), 15 (11, +11)

Signatures

Original signature letters visible in lower right recto, fols. 65r-69r (letter f) and fols. 75r-79r

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

Original horizontal catchwords in center of lower margin at fols.: 24v; 34v; 44v; 54v; 94v; 104v; 114v; 124v; 134v; 144v; and 154v; original downward facing catchwords in lower right margin at fols.: 74v and 84v

Binding

Italian, gold and silver brocade covers on wooden boards, fluted gilt edges, two silver clasps, one with an engraved Ave Maria (Hail Mary) plaque, fifteenth century(?); rebacked with red morocco, nineteenth century(?)

Layout

One column of thirteen lines, hard point ruling; written area: 67 x 45 mm

Decoration

Three full-page miniatures (perhaps with an additional miniature of the Annunciation missing between fols. 14v-15r); four white vine scroll borders with initials attached; seven stand-alone white vine scroll initials; illuminated and decorated initials throughout

Script

Humanistic

Provenance

• Note in sixteenth-century cursive hand on front pastedown: "Iste liber est sororis artemia picholominj" (This book belongs to Sister Artemesia Piccolomini); Susan B. Minns (sold at American Art Association, 2-3 May 1922, lot 421); John Frederick Lewis, Philadelphia; given by his widow, Anne Baker Lewis, to the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1936
   

Related resources

• 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. 2042, no. 99.
• 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. 131-132, no. 118, pl. 26.
• Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, originated by C. U. Faye, continued and edited by W. H. Bond (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1962), p. 453, no. 118.
• Levi D'Ancona, Mirella, "Postille a Girolamo da Cremona," in Studi di bibliografia e di storia in onore di Tammaro de Marinis (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1964), vol. 3, pp. 66-67 (article pp. 45-104).
• Eberhardt, Hans-Joachim, Die Miniaturen von Liberale da Verona, Gerolamo da Cremona und Venturino da Milano in den Chorbüchern des Doms von Siena: Dokumentation, Attribution, Chronologie (Munich: Dissertations- und Fotodruck Frank, 1983), p. 199, note 67, pp. 220-221, note 225.
• Wieck, Roger S., Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life, exh. cat. (New York: George Braziller in association with The Walters Art Gallery, 1988), cat. no. 117, p. 224.
• Christiansen, Keith, in Keith Christiansen, Laurence B. Kanter, and Carl Brandon Strehlke, eds., Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988), pp. 298-299.
• Eberhardt, Hans-Joachim "Liberale da Verona," in The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner (London: Grove, 1996), vol. 19, p. 307.
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Leaves of Gold: Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections, edited by James R. Tanis (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001), pp. 100-101, no. 30.
• Puglisi, Catherine, and William Barcham, eds., Passion in Venice: Crivelli to Tintoretto and Veronese (New York: Museum of Biblical Art, 2011), p. 60.
• King'oo, Clare Costley, Miserere Mei: The Penitential Psalms in Late Medieval and Early Modern England (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 2012), pp. 38, 186. (ff. 91v-92r;. 132v)

Keywords

• Book of Hours
• 15th century
• Italy
• Italian
• Illustration
• Miniature
• Illumination
• Christian
• Devotion
• Private devotional text

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E 118: Book of Hours, use of Rome 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 118: Book of Hours, use of Rome. 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. 2r — Calendar, Dominican Use
• fol. 15r — Hours of the Virgin, Use of Rome
• fol. 92r — Hours of the Cross
• fol. 96r — Office of the Dead
• fol. 133r — Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Provenance notation in sixteenth-century hand: "Iste liber est sororis artemia picholominj"
• fol. 15r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 15r — Full white vine scroll border with IHS, rabbit, and blank coat of arms in medallions
• fol. 27v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 40r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 45v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 49v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 53v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 57v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 65v — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 91v — Full-page miniature, Man of Sorrows supported by angels
• fol. 92r — Illuminated initial P
• fol. 92r — Full white vine scroll border
• fol. 95v — Full-page miniature, Death standing in a landscape
• fol. 96r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 96r — Full white vine scroll border
• fol. 132v — Full-page miniature, King David in penance
• fol. 133r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 133r — Full white vine scroll border
• Clasps — Lower clasp with plaque engraved AVE MARIA