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

Title

Book of Hours, use of Paris

Other related names

• Majorana, Cristoforo (Italian illuminator, active ca. 1480-1494), artist (http://viaf.org/viaf/95986363/#Cristoforo_Majorana)
• Wills, Howel, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/191480689)
• 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)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Widener 8
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, Widener Collection)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1611289
• deRicci: 8

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Naples, Italy
France

Summary

This manuscript is a fifteenth-century Book of Hours for the use of Paris that exemplifies the artistic exchanges between France and Italy that occurred in that period. While it was likely written in Paris in a Gothic bookhand in the early fifteenth century, it was illuminated in Naples later in the fifteenth century by both Cristoforo Majorana and another illuminator working in the style of the Master of the della Rovere Missals (fols. 81r, 99v, 103v, and 107v). Its miniatures feature a combination of lavishly illuminated all'antica architectural borders and panel borders with marginal drawings, while its text is written in blue ink and gold leaf, complete with illuminated initials, green and red line fillers, and foliate sprays throughout.

Notes

• Spine is separating from text block; many folios are coming loose
   
• Illuminated in Naples, Italy; text written in France
   
• Faint, mostly illegible inscription in upper margin on fol. 1r in nineteenth-century italic script; same hand appears again on fol. 12v-13r where it fills in missing opening text of Matins of the Hours of the Virgin
   
• One leaf with a miniature missing between fols. 186 and 187
   

Extent

Vi+243+vi; 204 x 140 mm bound to 210 x 155 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto

Collation

1 (12), 2 (8, -1), 3-8 (8), 9 (8, -8), 10 (6), 11-23 (8), 24 (8, -3), 25 (8, -1 -8), 26 (8, -3), 27-30 (8), 31 (6)

Support

Parchment

Catchwords

Horizontal catchwords in ink, lower center verso, except quires 9 and 22-25

Binding

Red morocco with gilt edges, spine labeled "HEURES"; early-nineteenth century

Layout

One column of fourteen lines, ruled in red ink; text written in blue ink and gold leaf; written area: 98 x 60 mm

Decoration

Sixteen large miniatures with full borders, some inhabited; eleven four-line illuminated initials with foliate spray, fifteen three-line illuminated initials (six with foliate spray extensions, nine without); two-line illuminated initials with foliate spray extensions, one-line illuminated initials without extensions, and line endings throughout; spaces for initials in Calendar left unfilled; space for coat of arms on fol. 153r left blank; two leaves missing that may have contained miniatures, between fols. 12-13, fols. 175-176, and fols. 180-181

Script

Gothic--textualis

Provenance

• Howel Wills (1854?-1901), Florence, under shelfmark. A.III.70; his sale, Sotheby's, 11 July 1894, no. 1417; bookplate of Clarence S. Bement (1843-1923), Philadelphia; 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. 2117, no. 8.
• 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.

Keywords

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

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia Widener 8: 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 8: 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 — Hours of the Virgin, Use of Paris (beginning lacking)
• fol. 81r — Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers
• fol. 99v — Hours of the Cross
• fol. 103v — Hours of the Holy Spirit
• fol. 107v — Office of the Dead
• fol. 153r — Hours of the Passion
• fol. 208r — Hours of the Compassion of the Virgin

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Clarence S. Bement
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Joseph Widener
• fol. 35v — Large miniature, Visitation
• fol. 35v — All'antica architectural border
• fol. 35v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 48r — Large miniature, Nativity
• fol. 48r — All'antica architectural border
• fol. 48r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 54r — Large miniature, Presentation in the Temple
• fol. 54r — All'antica architectural border
• fol. 54r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 59r — Large miniature, Adoration of the Magi
• fol. 59r — All'antica architectural border
• fol. 59r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 63v — Large miniature, Flight Into Egypt
• fol. 63v — All'antica architectural border
• fol. 63v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 68r — Large miniature, Massacre of the Innocents
• fol. 68r — All'antica architectural border
• fol. 68r — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 81r — Large miniature, David in Prayer
• fol. 81r — Full panel border with bird, putti and woman playing musical instruments
• fol. 81r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 99v — Large miniature, Pietà
• fol. 99v — Full panel border with angels holding a blue escutcheon containing the Instruments of the Passion
• fol. 99v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 103v — Large miniature, Pentecost
• fol. 103v — Full panel border with angels in a roundel holding a musical scroll
• fol. 103v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 107v — Large miniature, Raising of Lazarus
• fol. 107v — Full panel border with angels closing a raised coffin containing a skeletal corpse
• fol. 107v — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 153r — Large miniature, Agony in the Garden
• fol. 153r — Full all'antica ornamental panel border with blank space for missing coat of arms
• fol. 153r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 170r — Large miniature, Arrest of Christ
• fol. 170r — Full all'antica ornamental panel border
• fol. 170r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 177r — Large miniature, Christ Before Pilate
• fol. 177r — Full all'antica ornamental panel border
• fol. 177r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 181r — Large miniature, Flagellation
• fol. 181r — Full all'antica ornamental panel border
• fol. 181r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 203r — Large miniature, Pietà
• fol. 203r — Full all'antica ornamental panel border
• fol. 203r — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 208r — Large miniature, Entombment
• fol. 208r — Full all'antica ornamental panel border
• fol. 208r — Illuminated initial D