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Description
ff. 1-126v. [Book of Hours]: ff. 1-12v: Calendar in French; f. 13r-v: 2 coats of arms; ff. 14-19: Pericopes of the Gospels; f. 19v, with decorative border, but no text; ff. 20-23v: Mass of the Virgin; ff. 24-27: Short hours of the Cross; f. 27v, blank; ff. 28-64: Hours of the Virgin of undetermined use; f. 64v, blank; ff. 65-78v: Penitential psalms and litany; ff. 79-83v: Obsecro te and O intemerata; ff. 84-114v: Office of the Dead, use of Rome; ff. 114v-116v: Deus propicius esto michi peccatori; ff. 117-124: Prayers added in 16th c., including one in French; ff. 124v-125: blank; ff. 125v-126: An indulgence granted to those who say certain prayers before the images contained in this book, issued by an unidentified bishop"Richard Pauli Stravius par la grace de Dieu et du Saint Siege Apostolique Evesque de Denis...Donne a Rullant le 29me de Jullet 1652, Par ordonance de Monsieur le R., Charle Briffor secretaire.". Book of Hours, of undetermined use, written in northeastern France in the second half of the fifteenth century; note, in the calendar, "michiel," "franchois," "berthelemieu". Span folios: ff. 1-126v. Support: Parchment. Layout: 1-15⁸(through f. 117) 16² 17¹⁰(-6, 7, 8, presumably blank). One catchword survives on f. 45v in the script of the text, written vertically along the inner bounding line; the occasional tiny mark at the lower edge of other final quire leaves, however, indicates that the normal system in this book may have been to place the catchwords horizontally in the far inner corner of the leaf. Quire signatures, excluding the calendar, run a-[n?], with the leaves indicated by early form arabic numerals; beginning with the eleventh quire ["i"], another parallel set of quire and leaf signatures begins, a-e and 1-4 in early form arabic numerals, placed in the center of the lower margin. Early modern numbering of the quires in red-tinged ink in the gutter of the first recto. In the main body of the text, ruled space, 100 x 68 mm with 18 long lines, ruled in faint red-brown ink, with the script set above the line; on ff. 118-124, 16-18 lines of text, apparently unruled. Written in a Bâtarde script; ff. 117-124 in an italic hand. Decoration: Seventeen miniatures in arched compartments, numbered in early form arabic numerals in the center lower margin as suggested by the survival of the numbers 11, 13-17 on ff. 50, 56, 61, 65, 79, 84. Several miniatures have been attributed to Simon Marmion and helpers. 4- and 2-line initials in burnished gold with a design painted on the gold; infillings of dark blue acanthus leaves picked out in gold on maroon grounds of the same style, or vice versa. 1-line initials in burnished gold with infillings of dark blue or maroon on grounds of the other color; initials within the text touched in yellow. Rubrics in red. Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 10/17/2009. Cataloged from existing description: C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). The book has apparently been in loose quires since its acquisition and is kept in a black morocco box made by Lloyd, Wallis and Lloyd; the red velvet back cover from the binding retained in Library files. HM 1173. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Books of Hours France 15th century. (aat) Illuminations (Painting) France 15th century. (aat) Coats of arms. (aat) Manuscripts (documents) (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
Among the early owners were members of the family of Berlaymont as indicated by a death note on f. ii for"michiel de Berlaymont" dated 1516; notes on f. 10r-v give the death date of 1558 for"ma femme" whose body was brought to Berlaymont for burial, and again the date of 1558 for the dedication of the church of Berlaymont by the suffragan bishop of Cambrai. Two coats of arms added on f. 13r-v, on a leaf perhaps originally ruled and decorated for a calendar page probably represent the arms of Charles de Berlaymont, Baron of Lens and Knight of the Golden Fleece (1510-78) and his wife, Adrienne, daughter of Louis de Ligne, Baron of Barbaçon. The arms are, f. 13, encircled by a Renaissance wreath, per pale, I, arms of Berlaymont of Namur province (Rietstap, vol. 1, pl. 187); II, quarterly 1 and 4, arms of Ligne (Rietstap, vol. 4, pl. 65); 2 and 3, arms of Barbaçon of Hainaut (Rietstap, vol. 1, pl. 121); on f. 13v, the arms of Berlaymont encircled by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, presumably added between 1556, when Charles received the Golden Fleece, and his death in 1578. The manuscript was in the possession of a book dealer of Prague, Alexander Storch, in November 1896; Christie's, 9 April 1900, n. 234 (bought in); Catalogue 96 (March 1901) of Ellis and Elvey, pp. 1-6 with a long description by J. W. Bradley. Acquired by E. Dwight Church; in his Catalogue . . . of English Literature (1909) vol. 1, n. 401 with a plate of f. 24. The Church collection was purchased by Henry E. Huntington in 1911.
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