Book of Hours, Use of Rome

Book of Hours, Use of Rome

Flemish, 2nd half 15th century

Language: Latin

parchment
height 17.9 cm
width 13 cm

Mount Angel Abbey, Ms 63

Jeff Brown, Medieval Portland Research Assistant

This Book of Hours comes from the southern Netherlands of the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Two distinct and contrasting styles are evident in this work, particularly in the decorative page borders: an older, conservative style from the early fifteenth century, and the more illusionistic contemporary Ghent-Bruges style. Lackaff attributes this dichotomy to the purchase of the original draft of the manuscript and additions made by a second, more talented artist from another workshop. The book has also been rebound to the detriment of the original sequence of its pages.

Diebold, William. The Illustrated Book in the Age of Printing: Books and Manuscripts from Oregon Collections. Portland, OR: Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, 1993, p. 11 - Quoted with permission

6. Book of Hours, Use of Rome
Italy, second half of the 15th century
Mount Angel Abbey Library, MS 66
Fols. 193v-194f: Text pages and initial "P" with cross

9. Book of Hours, Use of Rome
Flanders, c. 1475
Mount Angel Abbey Library, MS 63
Fols. 32v-33r: Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and Text page with border

10. Book of Hours, Use of Troyes (Boucherat-Peley Hours)
Troyes.c. 1475
Mount Angel Abbey Library, MS 65
Fols. 17v-18r: Text page and Crucifixion

These three manuscripts; made at approximately the same time in three different parts of Western Europe, indicate the universality of the Book of Hours in the late Middle Ages. Each manuscript is open to the same text, the Hours of the Cross, a series of prayers meant to remind the viewer of Christ's passion. In the Flemish Book, number 9, this text is illustrated with a miniature of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the Italian Book, number 6, the initial beginning the same text contains an image of Christ's cross on a hill. In the French Book of Hours, number 10, is a miniature of the familiar scene of Christ crucified.

That all three of these manuscripts contain the same texts is significant; the standardization and widespread distribution of identical texts is often considered a result of printing, impossible in a scribal culture. Books of Hours were so popular in the Middle Ages, however, that they were made by hand with a mechanization not unrelated to the mechanical production of early printed books. One sign of the assembly-line-like production of manuscript Books of Hours like these is their patronage. Of the three, only number 10 was made to order, the traditional reason medieval illuminated manuscripts were made. Its patrons were Edmond le Boucherat, the mayor of the city of Troyes, and his wife, Jeanne le Peley. Many pages of the book bear either their coats of arms or their interlocked initials. Numbers 6 and 9, however, were made not for a particular patron but for the market. (There is a blank space for a coat of arms in number 6 to allow its buyer to have it personalized.) These two books were made for sale over the counter and in that sense are like most early printed books.

Wilma Fitzgerald, PhD, SP - Quoted with permission from an unpublished study

Liber horarum. Use of Rome. Saec. XV ex. Flanders or southern Netherlands. Latin and French (calendar and rubrics). FF. i +123. 180 x 129 (99/100 x 72/74) mm. Pointed gothic script of 17 lines (32 in calendar). Twelve large miniatures in arched compartments. Five full page and 15 small column miniatures: Annunciation, Visitation, Agony in the garden, Christ before Pilate, Crowning with thorns, Crucifixion, Christ's side pierced, Deposition, Entombment, Pentecost,Presentation in the temple, Flight into Egypt, Massacre of the Innocents, Virgin and Child, Nicholas, Anthony, Sebastian, Adrian, Barbara, Catherine, Magdalen, Michael, Raising of Lazarus, Nativity, Annunciation to the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi. Floral panel borders on all four sides of pages with full-page miniatures or 4-line initials and folios 32v-33. One 5-line initial, a number of four, two and one-line. Line endings in litany. All often with gold.

Literature: Peter W. Parshall, Illuminated Manuscripts from Portland Area Collections, Portland Art Museum May 9-July 23, 1978, Multnomah County Library (Library Association of Portland Or.) # 14; Until 1950 this manuscript belonged to the Dukes of Arenberg. Sold by Jacques Seligmann & Co. in 1952. Illuminated Manuscripts (11th Century through the 16th Century) from the Bibliotheque of their Highnesses the Dukes d'Arenberg. New York, Jacques Seligmann & Co. 1952.

Formerly in the possession of: Mr. Renson de Sansinne, Dinant (inscription, 1782 on fol. 124); Library of Dukes of Arenberg (cat. entry); Scribner's N.Y.); Gift of Mr. and Mrs. S. Eberly Thompson.

Calendar, Hours of the Holy Spirit, of Blessed Virgin Mary, of Cross, the prayers: Obsecro te, Prayer to various saints, psalms, litany, Office of the Dead.