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Add MS 82945
- Record Id:
- 032-001976739
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001976739
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000053.0x000023
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 82945
- Title:
-
Hours of the Passion ('the Wardington Hours')
- Scope & Content:
-
This copy of the Hours of the Passion, known as the Wardington Hours was produced in Paris during the 15th century. Work on the volume had probably begun in the second decade of the century, but was left unfinished for 20-30 years. In around 1440 the eight illustrations and their accompanying illuminated borders were added. An offset of a border decoration on f. 40v suggests that the manuscript originally formed part of a larger volume, probably a Book of Hours. According to Catherine Reynolds (unpublished commentary, see Masterpieces 2008), the other portion of this volume might be the Book of Hours, now the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, HM 1100 (for which see 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), electronic edition at http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/hehweb/HM1100.html). The two manuscripts share the same format and appear to have a similar production history. If this identification is correct, the division of the original manuscript into the present two parts must have taken place before the Huntington manuscript had been given by John Webb to Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (b. 1773, d. 1843).
Decoration:
8 miniatures of the Passion of Christ with full borders in colours and gold with gold ivy leaves, flowers and acanthus sprays, at the beginning of each hour (ff. 1r, 9v, 15r, 18v, 22v, 26v, 30r, 35r). Full borders in colours and gold with ivy leaves on every page, in one part of the volume with painted dragons with different animal heads. Large foliate initials in colours and gold, at the beginning of prayers, capitula and hymns, and smaller, at the beginning of antiphons, verses, and responsoria. Line fillers in colours and gold.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 1r: The Betrayal of Christ (Matins).
f. 9v: Christ before Pilate (Lauds).
f. 15r: The Scourging of Christ (Prime).
f. 18v: The Way to the Cross (Terce).
f. 22v: The Nailing to the Cross).
f. 26v: The Crucifixion containing the Seven Last Words of Christ (None).
f. 30r: The Descent from the Cross (Compline).
f. 35r: The Entombment (Vespers).
The manuscript is decorated in the Bedford style of illumination, named after John of Lancaster (b. 1389, d. 1435), Duke of Bedford, who was the brother of King Henry V and Regent of France for Henry VI. Other manuscripts produced by the Bedford group of artists in the British Library include one of the eponymous manuscripts of the Bedford Master, Add. MS 18850 and the eponymous manuscript of the Dunois Master, considered to be one of the principal followers of the Bedford Master, Yates Thompson MS 3.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001976739", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 82945: Hours of the Passion ('the Wardington Hours')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001976739
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001976739
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_82945 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1405
- End Date:
- 1445
- Date Range:
- c 1410-c 1440
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 240 x 170 mm (text space: 110 x 65 mm).
Foliation: ff. 40 (+ 9 unfoliated flyleaves: 2 modern paper and 3 ruled medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 2 ruled medieval parchment and 2 modern paper flyleaves at the end).
Collation: i-v8 (ff. 1-40); catchwords.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. 18th-century French red leather gilt binding, with a three-line gilt border, fleurons in the corners, and a spine in compartments gilt; marbled endpapers; blue silk markers, gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France (Paris).
Provenance:
The Parisian family of de Courgy: armorial bookplate ‘Ex Libris de Courgy’, 18th century (inside covers; f. 40v); the same bookplate is also found in Fitzwilliam Museum MS 123, acquired by Lord Fitzwilliam in 1808; according to Stella Panayotova (see Masterpieces 2008), the manuscripts perhaps descended through Baron Antoine-Marie Héron de Villefosse (b. 1774, d. 1852), son of Françoise-Charlotte Héron de Courgy. The number '1398' on the spine of the 18th-century Parisian binding is perhaps either a presumed date of the manuscript or an old shelfmark of the de Courgy collection.
Henry Pomeroy (b. 1749, d. 1829), 2nd Viscount Harberton: passed by descent to the Paravicini family; their sale as ‘The Property of a Lady’, Christie’s, 24 March 1953, lot 524; sold to Quaritch.
Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London antiquarian booksellers: included in the Quarich sale catalogue 716 (1953), no. 313; sold to Colman.
Dudley M. Colman (d. 1958), of Hove: his sale at Sotheby’s, London, 19 May 1958, lot 102; sold to Marlborough Rare Books, London, for Lord Wardington.
Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease (1924-2005), 2nd Baron Wardington: his bookplate with the motto 'pax et spes', a crown, and the initials 'HB' (inside lower cover); the manuscript was exhibited by him at the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Twenty-Third Congress, Stationers’ Hall, London, 24 September 2003, no. 11.
Lucy Anne Pease, daughter of Lord Wardington: her bookplate (f. [i]): sold by Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 2006, lot 43 to Günther Rare Books.
Acquired for £635,200 from Dr Jörn Günther Rare Books Ltd by the British Library in June 2007 (following the temporary deferral of an export licence) with a contribution of £250,000 from the Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation) and additional support through the Friends of the British Library, the Friends of the National Libraries, and the late Bernard Breslauer.
- Administrative Context:
- France (Paris).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Important Illuminated Manuscripts and Valuable Printed Books: The Property of a Lady (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, 1953), no. 524 [sale catalogue].
A Catalogue of Books Offered for Sale at the Net Prices Affixed by Bernard Quaritch Ltd (London: Quaritch, 1953), pp. 40-41 [sale catalogue].
Catalogue of Important Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures (London: Sotheby &Co., 1958), pp. 30-31 [sale catalogue].
Donal Byrne, ‘The Hours of the Admiral Prigent de Coëtivy’, Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 28 (1974), 248-61 (p. 254 n. 16).
Catherine Reynolds, ‘The Workshop of the Master of the Duke of Bedford: Definitions and Identities’, in Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400, ed. by G. Croenen and P. Ainsworth (Leuven, 2006), pp. 437-72 (p. 451).
The Wardington Library: Incunabula and the Wardington Hours (London: Sotheby's, 2006), pp. 94-101 [sale catalogue].
Masterpieces, Catalogue, 9 (Hamburg: Dr Jorn Günther, Antiquariat, 2008), electronic edition at http://guenther-rarebooks.com/catalog-online-09/15.php [accessed on 15 March 2013], no. 15 [sale catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)