Collection ID: 0031 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Hours of the Virgin, Use of Rome

Other related names

• Samuel Tolfrey Christie?, former owner
• Samuel Stockton White III, former owner
• White, Vera M. (American painter and lithographer, 1888-1966), former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/95849054)

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

1967‑30‑120
(Philadelphia, United States, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection)

Publisher

Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs

Language

Latin; Middle French (ca. 1400-1600); Italian

Origin

Place

France

Summary

This manuscript is a Book of Hours made in northern France for the Use of Rome in the late-fifteenth century. It contains a Suffrage to Saint Sebastian added in a later hand prior to the beginning of the manuscript proper, a calendar in French (fols. 1r-12v), Gospel Lessons with large miniatures of the Evangelists (fols. 13r-20v), the Obsecro te (fols. 21r-25r), the O intemerata (fols. 25v-28v), the Hours of the Virgin (fols. 29r-97v), the Hours of the Cross (fols. 98r-101v), the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fols. 102r-105v), an Accessory prayer in Italian in a later humanist hand (fols. 106r-106v), the Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers (fols. 107r-122v), the Office of the Dead (fols. 123r-171v), and the Mass of the Virgin added in a nearly contemporary rotunda script (fols. 172r-177v). Seventeen large miniatures plus an historiated initial for Lauds (fol. 50r), surrounded by foliate borders containing animal and human drolleries mark the divisions between these texts. The subjects depicted are Saint John (fol. 13r), Saint Luke (fol. 15r), Saint Matthew (fol. 17r) and Saint Mark (fol. 19r), along with the Virgin and Child (fol. 21r), the Lamentation (fol. 25v), the Annunciation (fol. 29r), the Nativity (fol. 63r), the Annunciation to the Shepherds (fol. 69r), the Adoration of the Magi (fol. 74r), the Presentation in the Temple (fol. 79r), the Flight into Egypt (fol. 85r), the Coronation of the Virgin (fol. 93r), the Crucifixion (fol. 98r), Pentecost (fol. 102r), David and Bathsheba (fol. 107r), and the Three Living and The Three Dead (fol. 123r). The miniatures, though damaged by moisture and abrasion, show a sensitive palette and an eye for anecdotal details. Various features point to an earlier Italian ownership of this Book of Hours.

Notes

• Original folios mistakenly unnumbered between 62 and 63, and 73 and 74
   
• Gilded rubrics in the Hours of the Virgin
   
• Antiphon in Latin in a humanist hand added to unnumbered folio following fol. 73
   
• Previously stated date of 1503 is perhaps based on a reading of inscription on fol. 178r
   

Extent

V+182+iii; 180 x 130 mm bound to 184 x 136 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto

Collation

1-2 (6), 3-18 (8), 19-20 (4), 21-23 (8), 24-25 (4)

Support

Parchment

Binding

Red morocco with gilt stamping and tooling, circa 1580-1600, Italian(?); Crucifixion on front cover and Virgin and Child on back cover; bee motif repeated on cover and center of spine

Layout

One column of fifteen lines, ruled in purple ink; written area: 104 x 69 mm

Decoration

Seventeen large miniatures and one historiated initial; full foliate borders surrounding each miniature, some with drolleries; single foliate margin on remaining rectos; illuminated initials and line-fillers throughout

Script

Gothic--textualis semi-quadrata

Provenance

• Early evidence of ownership in Italy (Mass of the Virgin in Rotunda Script, fols. 172r-178r, prayer added in a humanist hand on fol. 106, and Italian-style binding; Samuel Tolfrey, 1869 (possibly Samuel Tolfrey Christie, inscription on first lower flyleaf); possible German owner (list of miniatures in German on second to last flyleaf); Samuel Stockton White III and Vera White; bequeathed to the PMA in 1967
   

Related resources

• Henry G. Gardiner, "The Samuel S. White, 3rd, and Vera White Collection", Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 63, no. 296/297 (1968), p. 118 (article pp. 71-72+75-147+150)

Keywords

• Book of Hours
• 16th century
• French
• Illumination
• France
• Devotion

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs 1967‑30‑120: Hours of the Virgin, 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, Philadelphia Museum of Art has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs 1967‑30‑120: Hours of the Virgin, 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

• Unnumbered i recto — Office of the Saints Cosmas and Damian, on paper in an eighteenth-century hand
• Unnumbered i recto — Ownership note, Samuel Tolfrey, 1869; Ownership notes in pencil
• Unnumbered ii recto — List of miniatures in German, in pencil
• Unnumbered iv recto — Latin inscriptions with English translations in a later hand
• Unnumbered iv verso — Suffrage of Saint Sebastian in humanist hand
• fol. 1r — Calendar, in French
• fol. 13r — Gospel Lessons
• fol. 21r — Obsecro Te
• fol. 25v — O Intemerata
• fol. 29r — Hours of the Virgin
• fol. 98r — Hours of the Cross
• fol. 102r — Hours of the Holy Spirit
• fol. 106r — Accessory prayer in Italian in later humanist hand, Dulcissimo Signor Mio...
• fol. 107r — Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers
• fol. 123r — Office of The Dead
• fol. 172r — Mass of the Virgin, in a contemporary rotunda script
• fol. 178r — Notes in ink and pencil
• Unnumbered i recto — Office of the Saints Cosmas and Damian, on paper in an eighteenth-century hand
• Unnumbered i recto — Ownership note, Samuel Tolfrey, 1869; Ownership notes in pencil
• Unnumbered ii recto — List of miniatures in German, in pencil

Decorations

• fol. 13r — Large Miniature, Saint John on Patmos
• fol. 13r — Full foliate border
• fol. 13r — Illuminated initial I
• fol. 15r — Large miniature, Saint Luke painting portrait of the Virgin and Child
• fol. 15r — Full foliate border
• fol. 15r — Illuminated initial I
• fol. 17r — Large miniature, Saint Matthew
• fol. 17r — Full foliate border
• fol. 17r — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 19r — Large miniature, Saint Mark
• fol. 19r — Full foliate border
• fol. 19r — Illuminated initial I
• fol. 21r — Large miniature, Virgin and Child with musical angels
• fol. 21r — Full foliate border
• fol. 21r — Illuminated initial O
• fol. 25v — Large miniature, Lamentation
• fol. 25v — Full foliate border
• fol. 25v — Illuminated initial O
• fol. 29r — Large miniature, Annunciation
• fol. 29r — Full foliate border
• fol. 29r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 50r — Historiated initial D, Visitation
• fol. 50r — Full foliate border
• fol. 63r — Large miniature, Nativity
• fol. 63r — Full foliate border
• fol. 63r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 69r — Large miniature, Annunciation to the Shepherds
• fol. 69r — Full foliate border
• fol. 69r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 74r — Large miniature, Adoration of the Magi
• fol. 74r — Full foliate border
• fol. 74r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 79r — Large miniature, Presentation in the Temple
• fol. 79r — Full foliate border
• fol. 79r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 84r — Large miniature, Flight into Egypt
• fol. 84r — Full foliate border
• fol. 84r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 93r — Large miniature, Coronation of the Virgin
• fol. 93r — Full foliate border
• fol. 93r — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 98r — Large miniature, Crucifixion
• fol. 98r — Full foliate border
• fol. 98r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 102r — Large miniature, Pentecost
• fol. 102r — Full foliate border
• fol. 102r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 107r — Large miniature, David and Bathsheba
• fol. 107r — Full foliate border
• fol. 107r — Illuminated initial D
• fol. 123r — Large miniature, The Three Living and The Three Dead
• fol. 123r — Full foliate border
• fol. 123r — Illuminated initial D