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Add MS 27948

Record Id:
032-002019232
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
032-002019232
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100000000037.0x00011c
LARK:
SLARK:
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Add MS 27948
Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Sarum

Scope & Content:

This Book of Hours was probably produced in Bruges for the English market around 1410, and it was subsequently enlarged in the 1440s by supplementary devotions in two sections (ff. 40r-49r and 64r-109r).

Contents:

ff. 1r-5v: A calendar (missing the first folio containing January and February);

ff. 6r-8v: An excerpt from each of the Four Gospels, followed by a prayer;

ff. 9r-39v: Hours of the Virgin, with added prayers in a variety of later hands (ff. 26v, 27r);

ff. 40r-49v: Order of the Hours of the Virgin Mary;

f. 49v: Added prayer, beginning, 'Sancta Maria mater misericorde';

ff. 50r-55v: Lauds with prayers;

ff. 56r-57v: The seven Gaudia in honour of the Virgin;

ff. 58r-59v: Prayers to the Cross, etc;

ff. 60r-62r: 'Oratio Venerabilis Bede presbitei de septem verbis Christi in cruce pendentis', and short prayer in the lower margin of 60r;

ff. 62r-63r: Prayer for which Boniface VIII granted 2000 years' indulgence at the request of Philip IV of France;

f. 63v: Added prayers in English and Latin;

ff. 64r-71r: Hours of the Trinity;

ff. 71v-76v: Fifteen Prayers on the Passion;

ff. 76v-77v: Added Litany of the Virgin, beginning, 'Letania beate Marie uirginis';

ff. 77v-110r: Prayers and hymns for various occasions, including, at f. 97v, a long prayer in French for times of tribulation; f. 91r-v are later prayers;

ff. 111r-121v: Penitential Psalms with Litany;

ff. 122v-137v: Office of the Dead;

ff. 139r-146v: Commendation of Souls;

ff. 147r-149v: Psalms of the Passion;

ff. 151r-158r: Psalter of St Jerome;

f. 158v: Added prayer in a 15th-century hand.

Decoration:

12 full-page miniatures in colours and gold (ff. 21v, 24v, 27v, 30v, 33v, 35v, 64r, 71v, 110v, 122v, 138v, 150v). Initials with foliate and acanthus decoration in red, blue and gold framed by bar borders with acanthus sprays in red, blue and gold (ff. 9r, 13r, 22r, 25r, 28r, 31r, 34r, 36r, 56r, 111r, 123r, 139r, 147r, 151r). Three- or four-sided borders framed by acanthus sprays in colours and gold throughout. Small initials in red, blue and gold with pen-flourishing throughout. Line-fillers in red, blue and gold throughout. Very small initials alternating in red and blue with pen-flourishing in the opposite colour throughout. Rubrics in red.

The decoration of the miniatures, which are marked by a soft palette and thick four-sided borders, has been attributed to the Beaufort Saints Group, active in Bruges between approximately 1400-1415 (see Rogers, ‘Patrons and Purchasers' (2002), p. 1170). The two full-page miniatures in the supplementary sections (ff. 64r and 71v) have been dated to the 1440s and attributed to the Anglo-French artist of the Morgan Library's MS M. 105 (see Rogers, ‘Patrons and Purchasers' (2002), pp. 1170-71).

The subjects of the full-page miniatures are:

f. 21v: Christ before Pontius Pilate.

f. 24v: The Flagellation.

f. 27v: Christ carrying the Cross.

f. 30v: The Crucifixion.

f. 33v: The Deposition.

f. 35v: The Entombment, now cut down, and surrounded by fragments from a calendar of roughly 1400.

f. 64r: The Throne of Mercy, with God seated and crowned by two red seraphim, holding the crucified Christ, and between them the white dove of the Holy Spirit. The figures are presented within an architectural frame surrounded by dense acanthus and foliate sprays in gold, green and red, surrounded by a three-sided bar border. The arms of Welles and Willoughby are inserted into the lower part of the margin.

f. 71v: A pietà, featuring the Virgin seated with the Cross behind her, surrounded by the instruments of the Passion.

f. 110v: Christ seated on a crescent moon.

f. 122v: A vigil for the dead.

f. 138v: Souls being raised to heaven, towards an enthroned God.

f. 150v: St Jerome at a writing desk.

Collection Area:
Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Additional Manuscripts
Hierarchy Tree:
[{ "id" : "032-002019232", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 27948: Book of Hours, Use of Sarum" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-002019232
Is part of:
not applicable
Hierarchy:
032-002019232
Container:
not applicable
Record Type (Level):
Fonds
Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:
Languages:
English
Latin
Scripts:
Latin
Start Date:
1405
End Date:
1415
Date Range:
c 1410
Era:
CE
Access:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 190 x 140 mm (text space: 135 x 90 mm).

Foliation: ff. 158 + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Brown and burgundy leather with gold tooling.

Custodial History:

Origin: Netherlands, S. (Bruges).

Provenance:

Joan (b. 1425, d. 1461), only child and heir of Robert, Lord Willoughby (b. 1384, d. 1452), wife of Richard Welles, seventh Baron Willoughby and seventh Baron Welles (b. c. 1428, d. 1470), magnate: note of her death on 2 November 1461 in the calendar: 'Hic decessit Johanna [de] Welles et Wylugby anno domini M o quadrigentesimo LXJ o et [anno] regni regis Edwardi IIIJ ti I o' (f. 5r); the impaled arms of Welles and Willoughby (f. 64r).

John Lynn, 16th century: inscribed, 'This ys John Lynn [his] boke that was gyuen by iny lady Mordant that dethe ys' (f. 2r).

Purchased by the British Museum from 'Miss Reid' on 7 October 1868 (inscription on f. [ii] r).

Publications:

Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum for the Years 1861-1875, 2 vols. (London: British Museum, 1877), II, no. 27948.

Vlaamse miniaturen voor Van Eyck (ca. 1380-ca. 1420), Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts, 6, ed. by Maurits Smeyers (Leuven: Cultuereel Centrum Romaanse Poort, 1993), no. 23 [exhibition catalogue].

Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century (Leuven: Brepols, 1999), pl. 37 on p. 202.

Nicolas Rogers, ‘Patrons and Purchasers: Evidence for the Original Owners of Books of Hours Produced in the Low Countries for the English Market’ in 'Als Ich Can': Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), II, pp. 1165-1181 (p. 1170).

Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 3.

Janet Backhouse, Illumination from Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 84.

Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)
Names:
Welles, Joanna, wife of Richard, Baron Welles and Willoughby, b.c.1425, d. 1461
Related Material:

From the printed Catalogue of Additions (1877), no. 27948:

'HORÆ B. Mariæ Virginis, etc .:- 1. Calendar, containing entries of English saints. The first leaf is wanting. Under 2 Nov. is, "Hic decessit Johanna [de] Welles et Wylugby anno domini M o quadrigentesimo LXJ o et [anno] regni regis Edwardi IIIJ ti I o ," [Joan, daughter. of Robert, Lord Willoughby, de Eresby and wife of Sir Richard Welles, created Lord Welles and Willoughby]. f. 1. 2. Cursus evangeliorum, f. 6. 3. Horæ B. Maricæ Virginis, f.9. 4. Order for the Hours of the Virgin Mary, when there is not a full service. Lat . f. 40.5. The Lauds with prayers. Lat . f. 50. 6. The seven Gaudia in honour of the Virgin, f. 56. 7. Prayers to the Cross, etc., f. 58. 8. "Oratio uenerabilis Bede presbitei i de septem verbis Christi in cruce pendentis," f. 60. 9. Prayer for the saying of which Boniface VIII. granted 2000 years' indulgence at the request of Philip IV. of France, f. 62. 10. Hours of the Trinity, f. 64. 11. The fifteen O's, f. 71 b. 12. "Letania beate Marie uirginis," f. 76 b. 13. Prayers and hymns for various occasions, including, at f. 97 b, a long prayer in French for times of tribulation, f. 77 b. 14. "Septem psalmi" poenitentiales, etc ., with litany, vigils of the dead, and commendations, f. 111. 15. "De passions domini psalmi" f. 147. 16. B. Hieronymi abbreviatio Psalterii, f. 151. Vellum. Written in England in the earlier half of the xvth cent. With twelve miniatures. The arms of Richard, Lord Welles and Willoughby, impaling those of his wife, Joan, are painted at the foot of f. 64. A few leaves have been cut out or mutilated. On f. 2, in an early xvith cent. band, is, "This ys John Lynn [his] boke that was gyuen by iny lady Mordant that dethe ys." Octavo.'