Boethius Illuminator, active 1414-1420, artist Church, Elihu Dwight, 1835-1908, former owner Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Manuscript. HM 1142
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Description
ff. 1-142; [Book of Hours]: ff. 1-12v: Full calendar in French; ff. 13-22v: Pericopes of the Gospels, with the Obsecro te and the O Intemerata; f. 23r-v, ruled, but blank; ff. 24-77v: Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris; ff. 78-92v: Penitential psalms and litany; f. 78 was originally the opening leaf of the Hours of the Cross, the first text has been erased and the beginning of the Penitential psalms written in, in an imitative gothic script (17th cent.?); ff. 93-94v, 96-97v, 98r-v, 95r-v: Prayers in French, missing leaves; ff. 99-100: Short hours of the Cross, with the offices for none, vespers and compline only; ff. 100v-137v: Office of the Dead, use of Paris; f. 100v was originally the opening leaf for the Hours of the Holy Spirit, as indicated by the rubric, de sancto spiritu, on f. 100; the first text was erased and the beginning of the Office of the Dead written in, in an imitative gothic script (17th cent.?); ff. 138-139: Suffrage of Christopher, added in a different hand. ff. 139v-142v, blank. Book of Hours, use of Paris, written in the early fifteenth century; at a later date, perhaps in the seventeenth century when the book was bound in its present form, an effort was made to complete the by-then missing sections at the beginning of the Penitential psalms and of the Office of the Dead, by partially erasing (some of the original initials were left untouched) and re-writing respectively the opening leaves of the Hours of the Cross and of the Holy Spirit. Span folios: ff. 1-142v. Support: Parchment. Layout: 1¹² 2⁸ 3⁴(-4, excised) 4-9⁸ 10⁶(through f. 77) 11⁸(-1, which has been replaced by a leaf, now f. 78, once at the end of another quire, bearing the catchword ""et mortem"") 12⁸(-8, after f. 92) ff. 93-102 (now all singletons with f. 95 bound out of order and with leaves missing before ff. 93 and 98) 13-17⁸. Catchwords in a cursive script in the center lower margin. Ruled space, 99 x 65 mm;16 long lines, ruled in pale red ink. Written in 2 sizes of a gothic book hand; another gothic script, 15th c., on ff. 138-139; imitative gothic scripts on ff. 78r-v and 100v. Decoration: Ten miniatures, usually in square compartments above 5 lines of text, attributed to the Boethius Illuminator (Cf. M. Meiss, French Painting in the time of Jean de Berry, The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries (New York 1974) 372). Both text and miniature enclosed by wide bands of a U-frame deriving from initials and usually composed of pink, blue and gold segments, which sprout narrow pink and blue branches at the four corners; the outer border contains colored and gold trilobe leaves, dots and flowers. 3-line initials in white-decorated pink or blue against a burnished gold ground with colored trilobe leaf infilling; 3-, 2- and 1-line initials in burnished gold on pink grounds with blue infilling, or vice versa; ribbon line fillers in the same colors. Borders on every page, including those of the calendar, some containing figures and grotesques. Rubrics in an orange-tinged red. Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 9/15/2009. 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). Bound in late 17th century French brown morocco with later labels on the spine, ""Missale Romanum. MSS. In Membrana""; gilt edges. HM 1142. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Books of Hours France 15th century. (aat) Illuminations (Painting) France 15th century. (aat) Grotesques France 15th century. (aat) Manuscripts (documents) (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
Belonged to E. Dwight Church and is described in his Catalogue . . . of English Literature (1909) vol. 1, n. 407 with a plate of f. 43v. The Church collection was acquired by Henry E. Huntington in 1911.
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