- 165
Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis
Description
Illuminated manuscript on vellum, 8vo (7 7/8 x 5 3/8 in.; 200 x 135 mm), collation: 1-26, 36-1(a cancel), 4-78, 88-1(5th leaf lacking), 9-198, 204, 218=157 leaves including two which are ruled but otherwise blank, ruled in red ink, 17 lines, written in brown and dark brown ink in a gothic liturgical hand, rubrics in red, one small miniature and fourteen half-page miniatures with full borders sometimes incorporating birds or acanthys leaves, four-line initials under most miniatures in blue on a gold ground, every page with a two-line initial and a text-height illuminated border with foliate and floral ornament often on geometrically-shaped panels on grounds of gold, colors or plain vellum, two-line initials in burnished gold edged with black on a blue and red ground with white-line ornament, verse initials and line-fillers in liquid gold on a ground of alternating red, blue, red, brown; some marginal thumb soiling but generally in fine condition throughout with marginal prickings often intact and so preserving almost the full original dimensions. 19th-century dark green velvet, blind-stamped in a panel design with a foliate border and a central device incorporating a fleur-de-lis and a crown, silk doublures, parchment endleaves, gauffered and gilt edges, in a morocco blind-tooled drop-box; corners, bands and foot of spine torn.
Provenance
A sonnet entitled "Vraye amour l'ame nous y alie" is inscribed in a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century hand (f. 1v) above a monogram in gold formed of the letters "P, A, D, V" — a nineteenth-century bibliographic note on f. 1r dated "1820" on the Belles Heures and Très riches heures of the Duke de Berry.
Catalogue Note
Rheims is the Metropolitan See of France, but manuscripts of the Use of Rheims are much rarer than those of, for example, the Use of Paris or Rouen. Of the hundreds of liturgical manuscripts described by Leroquais in the Paris BN, only a handful were made for use in and around Rheims, including only one Book of Hours.
Text: Calendar, in French with major feasts (in red or blue) including Sts. Remi and Hilary (13 January), Helen (15 April), Memmius (5 August), Firminus (25 September), Quentin (31 October), Nicaise (11 October); Gospel pericopes (f. 14r); Hours of the Virgin with three lessons at Matins (f. 19r), with Lauds (f. 30r), Prime (f. 40v), Terce (f. 46r), Sext (f. 50r), None (f. 53v), Vespers (f 56v), and Compline (f. 63r); a prayer in French in twelve stanzas: "Ihesucrist a matines fut vostre cher vendue. | A prime de crachieen la face batue | ..." (f. 67v, cf. Leroquais, Livres d'heures, II, p. 290; Sonet, Répertoire d'incipit de prières en ancien français, no. 934); Hours of the Holy Spirit (f. 70v); Seven Penitential Psalms (f. 74r); Litany (f. 85v), with Alpinus and Claude last among the confessors; Office of the Dead, Use of Rheims (f. 90r); "Se sont les xv. ioies de la Magdalaine en manier d'oroison. O tres sainct dame magdalaine des dons de dieu enluminee | Par penitence et par ta peine. Lassus es cieulx es couronnee. | ..." (f. 130r, not in Leroquais or Sonet); suffrages (f. 134r) to saints Peter and Paul, Lupus, Sebastian, Nicholas, Christopher (using masculine forms), Remi, John the Baptist, Stephen, Lawrence, Catherine, Appolonia, and Barbara; the mass prayer Anima Christi (f. 140v); the Seven Verses of St. Bernard (written as eight, f. 141r); suffrages to saints Anthony, James, All Saints and to one's guardian angel (f. 142r); two Latin prayers, and a Creed in French: "Mon benoit dieu ie croy de cueur et confess de bouche tout ..." (f. 145r, Sonet, no. 1150); "Oroison de nostre seigneur saint Ioseph patriarche et mary de la vierge Marie" (f. 147v); a Life of Saint Margaret in French verse: "Apres la saincte passion. | Ihesucrist a l'ascension. | Quant il fut ou ciel montes. | ..."(f. 150r, cf. Leroquais, II, pp. 138, 210).
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows: 1. St. John on Patmos (f. 14r); 2. The Annunciation (f. 19r); 3. The Visitation (f. 30r); 4. The Nativity (f. 40v); 5. Annunciation to the Shepherds (f. 46r); 6. The Adoration of the Magi (f. 50r); 7. The Presentation in the Temple (f. 53v); 8. The Flight into Egypt with the Miracle of the Cornfield in the background (f. 56v); 9. The Coronation of the Virgin (f. 63r); 10. The Betrayal of Christ (f. 67v); 11. Pentecost (f. 70v); 12. David and Bathsheba (f. 74r); 13. Job on the Dungheap (f. 90r); 14. St. Margaret emerging from the dragon (f. 150r). One smaller miniature depicts St. Mary Magdalen (f. 130r).