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

Title

Book of Hours, use of Paris

Other related names

• Boucicaut Master, active 15th century, artist (http://viaf.org/viaf/1524070/)
• Lawrence, Edwin H., former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/61045779)
• Thompson, Henry Yates, 1838-1928, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/25444830/)
• Bement, Clarence S. (Clarence Sweet), 1843-1923, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/37240377/)
• Widener, Joseph E. (Joseph Early), 1872-1943, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/21158694/)
• Wichfeld, Josephine Widener, former owner
• Widener, Peter Arrell Brown, 1895-1948, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/68881955)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Widener 7
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, Widener Collection)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1540378
• deRicci: 7

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin; Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)

Origin

Place

Paris?, France

Summary

This manuscript is a Book of Hours made for the use of Paris in the early fifteenth century. While it is mostly written in Latin, its Calendar (fols. 1r-12v), triple graded in gold, red, and ultramarine, is written in French, as are the accessory prayers (fols. 240r-248v). The book opens with a calendar, in French (fols. 1r-12v), followed by the Gospel Lessons (fols. 13r-18v) and the Hours of the Virgin for the Use of Paris (fols. 19r-93v, lacking its first page with a miniature), Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers (fols. 94r-115v), Hours of the Cross (fols. 116r-125v), Hours of the Holy Spirit (fols. 126r-132v, lacking its first page with a miniature), and Office of the Dead (fols. 133r-183v). Further sections consist of the O intemerata (fols. 184r-187v) and Obsecro te (fols. 188r-191v) prayers, Suffrages (fols. 192r-225r), and Masses of the Holy Spirit, Virgin, Trinity, and Dead (fols. 225v-239v), all of which are unillustrated. A discrete final section contains three prayers in French: the Fifteen Joys of the Virgin (fols. 240r-244r), the Seven Requests to Our Lord (fols. 244v-246v), and a prayer to the True Cross (fols. 247r-248v). The twelve large miniatures that accompany the beginning of most major sections are related to the work of the Boucicaut Master. They represent the Visitation (fol. 45r), Nativity (fol. 57v), Annunciation to the Shepherds (fol. 64v), Adoration of the Magi (fol. 70r), Presentation in the Temple (fol. 75r), Flight into Egypt (fol. 80r), Coronation of the Virgin (fol. 88r), Maiestas Domini/Christ Blessing Chalice and Host (fol. 94r), Crucifixion (fol. 116r), Funeral Service (fol. 133r), Virgin and Child (fol. 240r), and Christ in Judgment (f. 245v). They are accompanied by lavishly illuminated foliate borders as well as illuminated initials and some marginal figures and drolleries, such as in the case of folio 94r, where two Jews are depicted holding banderoles with text written in Latin.

Notes

• Paper flyleaves are loose; water damage on a number of pages; several leaves missing
   
• Calendar and prayers on fols. 240r-248v in French
   
• Two front flyleaves, one eighteenth-century paper followed by one parchment; two end flyleaves, one parchment followed by eighteenth-century paper
   

Extent

Ii+250+ii; 206 x 145 mm bound to 220 x 165 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in upper right hand corner

Collation

1 (12), 2 (6), 3 (8, -1), 4-11 (8), 12 (4), 13-16 (8), 17 (8, -1), 18-20 (8), 21 (9, +1), 22 (8)

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

Horizontal on bottom center verso

Binding

French, eighteenth century, black morocco, gold tooled, spine stamped in gold: MISS. MA. S.S. SWO VELIN; by Bozerian (?)

Layout

One column of fifteen lines; ruled in red ink; written area: 60 x 100 mm

Decoration

Twelve large miniatures; illuminated borders throughout; illuminated initials and line-fillers throughout

Script

Gothic--textualis semi-quadrata

Provenance

• Library of Edwin H. Lawrence (sale of 1894); Henry Yates Thompson; his sale London, Sotheby's, May 14, 1902; collection of Clarence S. Bement (1843-1923), Philadelphia (bookplate inside front cover); Joseph E. Widener, Philadelphia (ex-libris inside front cover); given by his children, Josephine Widener Wichfeld and Peter A. B. Widener, to the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1944, in memory of their father
   

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. 2116, no. 7.
• 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.
• Pächt, Otto, "The Limbourgs and Pisanello," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, 62 (September 1963): 116 (article pp. 110-122).
• 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. 17.
• Cordellier, Dominique and Paola Marini, Pisanello: le peintre aux sept vertus (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1996), p. 227.

Keywords

• Book of Hours
• 15th century
• French
• Gothic
• Illumination
• Miniature
• France
• Devotion

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia Widener 7: Book of Hours, use of Paris 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 Widener 7: Book of Hours, use of Paris. 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
• fol. 13r — Gospel Lessons
• fol. 19r — Hours of the Virgin, Use of Paris (first page lacking)
• fol. 94r — Penitential Psalms, Litany and Prayers
• fol. 116r — Hours of the Cross
• fol. 126r — Hours of the Holy Spirit (first page lacking)
• fol. 133r — Office of the Dead
• fol. 184r — O intemerata
• fol. 188r — Obsecro te
• fol. 192r — Suffrages
• fol. 225v — Mass of the Holy Spirit
• fol. 230v — Mass of the Virgin
• fol. 233v — Mass of the Trinity
• fol. 235v — Mass of the Dead
• fol. 240r — Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, in French
• fol. 244v — Seven Requests to our Lord, in French
• fol. 247r — Prayer to the True Cross, in French: "Sainte vraye crois aouree"

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Joseph E. Widener
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Clarence S. Bement
• fol. 45r — Large miniature, Visitation
• fol. 57v — Large miniature, Nativity
• fol. 64v — Large miniature, Annunciation to the Shepherds
• fol. 70r — Large miniature, Adoration of the Magi
• fol. 75r — Large miniature, Presentation in the Temple
• fol. 80r — Large miniature, Flight into Egypt
• fol. 88r — Large miniature, Coronation of the Virgin
• fol. 94r — Large miniature, Maiestas Domini/Christ Blessing Chalice and Host
• fol. 116r — Large miniature, Crucifixion
• fol. 133r — Large miniature, Funeral Service
• fol. 240r — Large miniature, Virgin and Child
• fol. 245v — Large miniature, Christ in Majesty