[Book of hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary]

[Book of hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary]

Book of hours (title on container)

Title and date from file card, laid in.

1) Parchment; 1. ff. 38-44v, The Gospel pericopes (beginning with the standard text from John 1:1-14), missing the opening leaf, followed by the usual prayers (Protector in te sperantium; Ecclesiam tuam quesumus domine benignus illustra), and then the usual extracts from Luke (1:26-38), Matthew (2:1-12) and Mark (16: 14-20). Misbound in the present position; the pericopes usually occur after the calendar and before the prayers, Obsecro te and O Intemerata (or before the beginning of the Hours of the Virgin).

2) ff. 42-43v, f. 37r-v, ff. 1-5; f. 5v blank//et leticie, fons consolationis et indulgencie Per illam sanctam ineffabiliter leticiam qua exultavit spiritus tuus in illa hora quando tibi per gabrielem archangelum annunciatus et conceptus filius dei fuit . . . [f. 43v] et michi famulo tuo impetres a dilecto filio tuo complementum omni misericordia et consolation, omni consilio, omni auxilio et [f. 37r-v:] adiutorio, omni benedictione et sanctificatione, omni salvatione, pace, prosperitate, omni gaudio et alacritate. Eciam habundanciam . . . tenere me faciat et a septem peccatis crimina- [ff. 1-5] -libus me liberet et deffendat usque in finem vite mee. Et in novissimis diebus meis ostende michi faciem tuam . . . . et exaudi me dulcissima virgo maria mater dei et misericordia. Amen. Oratio beate marie virginis, O Intemerata et in eternum benedicta . . . [f. 2v] et esto michi miserrimo peccatori propicia in omnibus auxiliatrix . . .

3) ff. 6-29, 47-52v -- //psalmis iubilemus ei. Ave maria gratia plena dominus tecum. Quoniam deus magnus dominus et rex magnus super omnes deos . . . Hours of the Virgin (at matins), opening defectively, probably use of Rouen; the office of prime occupies ff 47-52v, and the antiphon and capitulum at prime are: Ant., Maria virgo assumpta est ad ethereum thalamum; Cap., Per te dei genitrix est nobis vita perdita; the service at nones is no longer in the book, as only parts of matins, lauds and prime remain, with all miniatures cut out. Following the remaining part of lauds are, on ff. 25-27v, suffrages of the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist, Nicholas, Martin of Tours, Anthony of Padua, Maurus, and Lupus (here spelled "Luppus," in whose suffrage the text breaks); on ff. 28-29 (f. 29v, blank) is the end of a suffrage of Catherine of Alexandria, here remaining are 27 verses in French in 6-line stanzas ([aa]baab ccdccd eefeef gghggh etc.) plus an irregular final stanza.

4) ff. 30-35vShort hours of the Cross, opening miniature cut out, but containing the rest of the text, through compline -- 5) f. 35v, f. 36r-v, ff. 43-46v, Short hours of the Holy Spirit, opening miniature cut out after f. 35r-v (rubric is on f. 35v, Les heures du saint esperit). -- 6) f. 46v, Rubric in French at the bottom of the page to signal the beginning of the Office of the Dead, which would have followed the Short hours of the Holy Spirit, but which is no longer in this book: Les vespres des mors.Parchment; ff. 52, much misbound and with all illumination removed, as well as easily half of the text leaves, including all of the calendar, the second half of the Hours of the Virgin, the Penitential Psalms, and the Office of the Dead. 175 x 125 mm. Written in a formal gothic book hand in 2 sizes (the smaller is for versicles and responses), on 15 pale red lines to the page. No catchwords or signatures remain.

Illuminated initials and floriated borders.

Latin text.

Written in France, probably in Rouen, given the liturgical use of the Hours of the Virgin (at Prime; Nones no longer remains in the manuscript), during the middle of the 15th century. Probably during the 18th to 19th century, the book belonged to the family residing in Milton Hall, near Peterborough, given the book label on the front pastedown (but this attribution is made with some caution, since the shell of the binding might have belonged to another book).

Now surviving only on f. 1, a 4-line white-decorated blue initial with both colors on acanthus leaves in the initial, set on a square gold ground with a bar border on the left extending the length of the text space formed of a gold strip and a colored strip (divided, in part blue and in part pink), and with a C-shaped border of flowers (blue 4- and 5-leaf flowers, strawberries and round red berries) and acanthus leaves in blue and gold around the text on three sides. 2-line initials in white-decorated color (alternating blue or pink) with both colors in the acanthus leaves within the initial, set on a squared gold ground, with a spray of mainly gold trilobe leaves with one colored flower at the top and one at the bottom of the spray, and extending into the margin. 1-line gold initials on blue and pink white-decorated grounds; line fillers in the same colors. Initials of the verses in French for St. Catherine, f. 28r-v, touched in yellow. Rubrics in red. Offset of blue paint from decoration on what was the facing page with a full border, now visible on ff. 5v (before the Hours of the Virgin), 15v (before lauds), 30 (before the Short Hours of the Cross), 35v (before the Short Hours of the Holy Spirit), 42 (before the Obsecro te), 47v (before the now-missing Office of the Dead), 52v (before the now-missing terce of the Hours of the Virgin). On f. 22, lower margin, note, s. XVII (?), "En faint mon fils s<?> ne voullez po<?> maine." Foliated, September 2023.Bound, possibly in former days, in limp vellum over boards, to the extent that there is with today's completely unbound book an outer shell of a limp vellum binding, but it is uncertain if this was ever attached to the present book, in that, sitting on the book's "front" and ''back" areas, there is a dark vellum "leaf" that might have been part of this book's binding. The stitching of the book's gatherings is solid, holding the book in its present jumbled state, and placing the book's one leaf with its highest present level of decoration in first position (the opening of the O Intemerata prayer, with a 4-line initial and C-shaped page decoration).

[15th century]

2024-06-24

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Text

image/jpg

52 unnumbered leaves ; 19 cm

Parchment

RBR Mss. B66 1450

[France]