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Add MS 17012
- Record Id:
- 032-002094807
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002094807
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000044.0x00017c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100172075906.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 17012
- Title:
-
Books of Hours, Use of Sarum ('The Book of Joan Vaux')
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript is a Book of Hours that was made in Antwerp around the turn of the 16th century. It subsequently came to England, where it came into the posession of a lady of the Tudor court, possibly Joan Vaux (b. c. 1463, d. 1538), Lady Governess to the Princesses Margaret (b. 1489, d. 1541) and Mary Tudor (b. 1496, d. 1533). The volume contains a number of added autograph inscriptions and expressions of favour addressed to her from members of the Tudor family and the royal court, including Henry VII, Henry VIII, Elizabeth of York, Margaret Tudor, Catherine of Aragon, and Princess Mary (later Mary I). It also features added inscriptions in the hands of John Poyntz (b. c. 1485, d. 1544) and Sir Francis Poyntz (d. 1528), brothers of Joan's second husband, the English diplomat and naval commander Sir Anthony Poyntz (d. 1533).
The end of the volume contains an added English translation of a Latin prayer attributed to St Thomas Aquinas ('Concede mihi, misericors Deus'), made by Princess Mary in 1527 when she was only 11 years old. The translation of the prayer seems to have been known to Henry Parker (b. 1476/81, d. 1553/56), 10th Baron Morley, who referred to it in the Preface to a Book of Translations he made as a New Year's Gift for Mary (now Royal MS 17 C XVI, ff. 2r-3r).
Excluding the added prayer, the contents of the manuscript are near identical to another Book of Hours made in Bruges around the same time and which later belonged to Anne Boleyn (b. c. 1501 or 1507, d. 1536), Queen of England (now Kings MS 9).
For an extended study of the volume, see Mary Erler, 'The Book of Hours as album amicorum: Jane Guildford's Book', in The Social Life of Illumination: Manuscripts, Images, and Communities in the Late Middle Ages, ed. by Joyce Coleman, Mark Cruse, and Kathryn A. Smith (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), pp. 505-36.
Contents:
ff. 1r-12v: Calendar, including Franco-Flemish as well as English saints (e.g. St Eligius, 1 December, and St Hubert, 3 November).
ff. 14r-20v: The Fifteen Oes, with the rubric, 'Incipiunt quindecim orationes ad dominum Ihesum Xpristum'.
ff. 22r-43v: Memoria to the Holy Trinity (f. 22r), St John the Baptist (f. 25r), St John the Evangelist (f. 27r), St Thomas of Canterbury (f. 29r), St George (f. 31r), St Christopher (f. 33r), St Anne (f. 35r), St Mary Magdalene (f. 37r), St Katherine (f. 39r), St Barbara (f. 41r), and St Margaret (f. 43r).
ff. 45r-92r: Hours of the Virgin, Use of Sarum, with Commemorations of Saints, including St Thomas of Canterbury (f. 63r, effaced); ff. 86-89 are bound before ff. 81-85 (see the pencil note by Sir Frederic Madden, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum on f. 80v).
f. 92r-v: 'Quicunque gaudia beate marie virginis', beginning, 'Gaude virgo mater Christi'.
ff. 93r-94r: Prayer on the Seven Joys of the Virgin Mary, with the rubric, 'Septem gaudia beate marie virginis', beginning, 'Gaude flore virginali'.
ff. 94r-104r: Hymns and Prayers to the Virgin Mary, the first a hymn based on the 'Salve regina', with the rubric, 'Has videas laudes: qui sacra virgine gaudes', beginning, 'Salue virgo virginum: stella matutina'.
ff. 104v-106v: 'Septem gaudia in honore beate marie virginis', with an attached indulgence in the name of Pope Clement, beginning 'Virgo templum trinitatis'.
ff. 107r-110v: Salutations to the Crucifix, Cross, Head, and Five Wounds of Christ, to the Virgin Mary, and to St John the Evangelist, beginning, 'Omnibus consideratis'.
ff. 110v-113r: 'Oratio venerabilis Bede presbyteri de septem verbis Christi in cruce pendentis', beginning, 'Domine ihesu Christe qui septem verba die ultimo'.
ff. 113r-114r: Salutations to Christ, beginning, 'Ave domine Ihesu Christe'.
ff. 114r-v: A prayer for use 'inter elevationem corporis Christi et tercium agnus dei' with an indulgence granted by Pope Boniface [VIII] 'ad supplicationem Philippi [IV] regis Francie'.
ff. 116r-123r: Seven Penitential Psalms, with the rubric, 'Incipiunt septem psalmi penitentiales'.
ff. 123r-124v: Fifteen Gradual Psalms, with the rubric, 'Incipiunt quindecim psalmi'.
ff. 124v-133r: Litany of the Saints, with the rubric, 'Incipit letania sanctorum'.
ff. 135r-157r: Office of the Dead, with the rubric, 'Incipiunt vigilie mortuorum'.
ff. 158r-171v: Commendation of Souls, with the rubric, 'Incipiunt commendations animarum'.
ff. 173r-177v: Psalms of the Passion, with the rubric, 'Incipiunt psalmi de passione domini'.
ff. 178r-192r: Psalter of St Jerome, preceded by a rubric and prayer, beginning, 'Suscipere digneri', the Psalter beginning at f. 181r.
ff. 192v-194r: An added English translation of the Latin prayer 'Concede mihi, misericors Deus' (attributed to St Thomas Aquinas), apparently made by Princess Mary in 1527, introduced as 'The prayor of Saynt Thomas of Aquyne, translatyd oute of Latyn unto Englyshe by the moste exselent Prynses [erased] Mary, doughter to the moste hygh and myghty Prynce and Prynces kyng Henry the viij. and Quene Kateryne hys wyfe [erased], in the yere of our Lorde God m'.ccccc.xxvij [1527]. and the xj yere of here age'.
The manuscript contains a number of added notes and autograph inscriptions, including several by Tudor monarchs and members of the royal court, as follows:
f. 20v: The autograph signature of Henry VIII.
f. 20v: An inscription in English, written in the hand of Catherine of Aragon: 'I thinke the prayers of a frend the most acceptable unto God and because I take you for one of myn assured I pray you remembre me in yours. Katherine the queen [erased]'.
f. 21r: An inscription in English, written in the hand of Henry VII: 'Madame I pray you Remembre me your louyng maistre. Henry R[ex]'.
f. 21r: An inscription in English, written in the hand of Elizabeth of York: 'Madame I pray you forget not me to pray to god that I may have part of your prayers. Elysabeth the quene'.
f. 21r: An inscription in French, written in the hand of Princess Margaret, later Queen of Scotland: 'et moy je vous prie que maintietenes tousjours en sa bonne grace. cest m[argueri]te'.
f. 63r: An inscription in English, written in a 16th-century hand: 'Marke well my meanyng, good wyll yt my deseruyng'.
f. 80v: An inscription in French, written by a woman signing herself 'C. la Baume'.
f. 157r: An inscription in French, written by a woman signing herself 'C. la Baume'.
f. 171v: An inscription in French, written by a woman signing herself 'C. la Baume'.
f. 179v: An inscription in Latin, written in the hand of Francis Poyntz: 'Felix que[m] faciunt aliena pericula cautu[m]', followed by the letters 'FP'.
f. 180r: An inscription in Latin, written in the hand of John Poyntz: 'Felix qui potent Jo[hn] Poynz'.
f. 180r: An inscription in English, written in the hand of Thomas Manners, Lord Roos and 1st Earl of Rutland: 'Madam wan you ar dysposyd to pray remember your assured sarvant always, T Roos'.
f. 180r: An inscription in English, written in the hand of Francis Poyntz: 'Madame when ye most devoutyst be have yn remembreance f and p', below the initials 'AL' and a little heart.
f. 192v: An inscription in English, written in the hand of Princess Mary, 'I have red that no body lyvethe as he shulde doo but he that foloweth verrtu and y reckenynge you to be one of them I pray you to remembre me yn your devocyons. Mary the princesse'.
f. 195v: An added memorandum written in English by John Morphy of Dublin (d. 1603) stating that he received the volume from an Italian in 1589, ('the 30th year of the reign of Elizabeth I'), followed by an inscription in an early 17th-century hand, relating to the death of Morphy's wife, Margaret Segerson, in 1616 (partially effaced).
f. 196v: An inscription in French, written in the hand of Yolande Louise of Savoy.
ff. 13r, 24r, 26r, 28r, 30r, 32r, 34r, 36r, 40r, 42r, 44r, 52r, 66v-67r, 71v-72r, 75v-76r, 79r, 87r, 83v-84r, 115r, 133v-134r, 157v-158r, 172r, 194v-195r and 196r are blank.
Decoration:
12 miniatures of the Labours of the Months, roundels of the zodiac signs, and full scatter borders in colours with animals, figures, and foliage in the calendar (ff. 1r, 2r, 3r, 4r, 5r, 6r, 7r, 8r, 9r, 10r, 11r, 12r).
25 large miniatures of saints and scenes from the Passion in colours with full scatter borders with flowers, animals, and hybrid creatures, facing full scatter border (ff. 13v-14r, 21v-22r, 24v-25r, 26v-27r, 28v-29r, 30v-31r, 32v-33r, 34v-35r, 36v-37r, 38v-39r, 40v-41r, 42v-43r, 44v-45r, 52v-53r, 67v-68r, 72v-73r, 76v-77r, 79v, 87v-88r, 84v-85r, 115v-116r, 134v-135r, 158v-159r, 172v-173r, 180v-181r). The miniature that would have appeared before Nones is now missing: see the note in pencil by Sir Frederic Madden (f. 80v).
17 small miniatures with 3-sided scatter borders in colours (59v, 60v, 61r, 61v, 62r, 62v, 63r, 63v, 65r, 94r, 104v, 107r, 107v, 108r, 108v, 109r, 109v).
Full scatter border in colours with animals and flowers (f. 81r).
Initials in gold on blue or red grounds. Rubrics.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 1r: January: a man sat at a table, eating before an open fire, with the water-bearer of Aquarius.
f. 2r: February: a man warming his hands and feed before an open fire, with the twin fish of Pisces.
f. 3r: March: labourers ploughing the fields, with the ram of Aries.
f. 4r: April: shepherds watching their flocks, with the bull of Taurus.
f. 5r: May: a couple sitting on horseback, with the twins of Gemini.
f. 6r: June: labourers sheering sheep, with the red crab of Cancer.
f. 7r: July: labourers preparing the hay harvest, with the lion of Leo.
f. 8r: August: a labourer threshing and winnowing, with the maiden of Virgo.
f. 9r: September: a labourer sowing a field, with a figure holding the scales of Libra.
f. 10r: October: labourers gathering grapes and treading a wine vat, with the scorpion of Scorpio.
f. 11r: November: labourers butchering a cow, with the centaur of Sagittarius.
f. 12r: December: labours preparing the wheat harvest, with the goat of Capricorn.
f. 13v: Christ in Majesty.
f. 21v: The Throne of Mercy.
f. 24v: St John the Baptist, with the Agnus Dei on a book.
f. 26v: St John the Evangelist, with a cup and serpent.
f. 28v: The Martyrdom of St Thomas of Canterbury.
f. 30v: St George and the Dragon.
f. 32v: St Christopher.
f. 34v: St Anne, with the Virgin Mary and Infant Christ.
f. 36v: St Mary Magdalene.
f. 38v: St Catherine of Alexandria.
f. 40v: St Barbara.
f. 42v: St Margaret.
f. 44v: The Garden of Gethsemane.
f. 52v: The Arrest of Christ.
f. 59v: A dove representing the Holy Spirit.
f. 60v: Christ on the Cross.
f. 61r: St Michael defeating a devil.
f. 61v: St Peter and St Paul.
f. 62r: St Andrew.
f. 62v: St Stephan.
f. 63r: St Laurence.
f. 63v: St Nicholas.
f. 65r: A gathering of saints, including St Peter, St Katherine, and St John the Baptist.
f. 67v: Christ before Caiphas.
f. 72v: The Scourging of Christ.
f. 76v: Christ carrying the Cross.
f. 79v: The Crucifixion.
f. 87v: The Burial of Christ.
f. 84v: The Descent from the Cross.
f. 94r: The Virgin and Child.
f. 104v: The Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple.
f. 107r: Christ, holding the instruments of the Passion.
f. 107v: Calvary.
f. 108r: Christ's head wearing the Crown of Thorns (above); Christ's wounded hand (below).
f. 108v: Christ's wounded hand.
f. 109r: Christ's heart (above); Christ's wounded foot (below).
f. 109v: Christ's wounded foot.
f. 115v: David kneeling in prayer.
f. 134v: The Raising of Lazarus.
f. 158v: The Raising of Souls to Heaven.
f. 172v: Christ as the Man of Sorrows.
f. 180v: St Jerome kneeling before Christ on the Cross.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002094807", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 17012: Books of Hours, Use of Sarum ('The Book of Joan Vaux')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002094807
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002094807
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100172075906.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1495
- End Date:
- 1505
- Date Range:
- c 1500
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 195 x 140 mm (written space: 115 x 77 mm).
Foliation: ff. 196 (+ 1 unfoliated paper and 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after ff. 23 and 114 + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end); ff. 86-89 are bound before ff. 81-85.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Red velvet; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Antwerp, Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium).
Provenance:
The manuscript was owned by a lady of the early Tudor court, probably Joan Vaux (b. c. 1463, d. 1538), also known as Mother Guildford, second wife to the English diplomat and naval commander Sir Anthony Poyntz (d. 1533) and Lady Governess to the Princesses Margaret and Mary Tudor: added autograph inscriptions addressed to her, written by members of the Tudor Royal family, including Henry VIII (f. 20v), Catherine of Aragon (f. 20v), Henry VII (f. 21r), Elizabeth of York (f. 21r), Margaret Tudor (f. 21r), and Mary Tudor, later Mary I (f. 192v); and members of the Poyntz family and Tudor court, including Sir Anthony's brothers Sir John Poyntz (f. 180r) and Sir Francis Poyntz (ff. 179v, 180r), as well as Thomas Manners, Lord Roos and Earl of Rutland (f. 180r) and Yolande Louise of Savoy (f. 196v).
The volume also features three autograph inscriptions in French, written by an unknown woman who signs herself 'C. La Baume' and 'votre maistrese' (ff. 80v, 157r, 171v).
John Morphy (d. 1603), surgeon and alderman of Dublin, also known as 'John Murphy' or 'John Morphe': an added memorandum in English in his hand, stating that the manuscript was given to him by an Italian in 1589, in the 30th year of the reign of Elizabeth I (f. 195v); (on John Morphy, see Piatt, Murphe and Morphe, 'A Pale Family and Old Dublin', (1963), 91-100).
Margaret Segerson (d. 1616), wife of John Morphy: an added note relating to her death in 1616 and possibly her ownership of the book (f. 195v, effaced).
George Wilkinson (b. c. 1792, d. 1836), Esq. of Tottenham Green: in his collection by 1831, when Sir Frederic Madden referred to it in the introductory memoir to his edition of the privy purse expenses of Princess Mary (see Madden, Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary (1831), pp. cxxvii-cxxviii); his sale, Messrs Evans, 11 July 1836, lot 692, purchased by an unknown buyer for £52 10s (see note, f. [ii] recto).
Reverend William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890), English priest and liturgical scholar: his name inscribed, 'W. Maskell'; his printed bookplate with the initials 'WM' and 'Iber clerici Willielmi Maskell' (inside upper cover); his sale, 3 July 1847, purchased by the British Museum (see note, f. [ii] recto), together with 12 other manuscripts from his collection (Add MSS 17001-17013) for £420.
- Publications:
-
Frederic Madden, Privy Purse Expenses of the Prince Mary, Daughter of King Henry the Eighth, afterwards Queen Mary (London: W. Pickering, 1831), pp. cxxvii-cxxviii.
Catalogue of the splendid and valuable library of the late George Wilkinson, Esq. of Tottenham Green (London: W. Nicol, 1836), pp. 42-43.
William Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 3 vols (London: W. Pickering, 1846-1847), I, pp. cliii-cliv; III, pp. 287-88.
A Guide to the Manuscripts, Autographs, Charters, Seals, Illuminations and Bindings exhibited in the Department of Manuscripts and in the Grenville Library (London: British Museum, 1895), p. 79.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1846-1847 (London: British Museum, 1882), pp. 346-47.
Christopher Wordsworth and Henry Littlehales, The Old Service-Books of the English Church (London: Methuen, 1904), pp. 62-63.
Donn Piatt, John Murphy and John Morphe, 'A Pale Family and Old Dublin', Dublin Historical Record, 18 (1963), 91-100.
Janet Backhouse, The Hastings Hours (London: The British Library, 1996), pp. 59-60.
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. 1165-81 (p. 1170).
James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives (London: British Library, 2004), p. 109, pl. 95.
Mary C. Erler, 'Widows in Retirement: Region, Patronage, Spirituality, Reading at the Gaunts, Bristol', Religion and Literature, 37 (2005), 51-75 (pp. 68-69).
Eamon Duffy, Marking the Hours: English People and their Prayers, 1240-1570 (London: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 51-52, 156-58.
Women's Books of Hours in Medieval England, ed. by Charity Scott-Stokes (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 31, 139-40, 152.
Alexandra Barratt, 'Singing from the Same Hymn-Sheet: Two Bridgettine Manuscripts', in Design and Distribution of Late Medieval Manuscripts in England (York: York Medieval Press, 2008), pp. 139-60 (p. 151).
Alexandra Barratt, Anne Bulkeley and Her Book: Fashioning Female Piety in Early Tudor England (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009), pp. 31-32.
Jaime Goodrich, 'Mary Tudor, Lord Morley, and St. Thomas Aquinas: The Politics of Pious Translation at the Henrician Court', ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, 24 (2011), 11-20 (pp. 11, 14, 18).
Carole M. Meale, 'Speaking Volumes: The Middle-Aged Woman and the Book in Medieval England', in Middle-Aged Women in the Middle Ages, ed. by Sue Niebrzydowski (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2011), pp. 83-100 (p. 91).
Mary Erler, 'The Book of Hours as album amicorum: Jane Guildford's Book', in The Social Life of Illumination: Manuscripts, Images, and Communities in the Late Middle Ages, ed. by Joyce Coleman, Mark Cruse, and Kathryn A. Smith (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), pp. 505-36.
Women's Writing in Middle English: An Annotated Anthology, ed. by Alexandra Barrett (London: Routledge, 2013), pp. 332-33.
Andrea Clarke, Tudor Monarchs: Lives in Letters (London: The British Library, 2017), pp. 12-15.
Rosaland Smith, 'Paratextual economies in Tudor women's translations: Margaret More Roper, Mary Roper Basset and Mary Tudor', in Trust and Proof: Translators in Renaissance Print Culture, ed. by Andrea Rizzi (Leiden: Brill, 2017), pp. 185-209 (pp. 203-07).
Richard Gameson, 'Becket in Horae: the Commemoration of the Saint in Private Prayer Books of the Later Middle Ages', Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 173 (2020), 143-73 (pp. 149, 157).
Emily Wingfield, 'Re-reading a quatrain by Mary Queen of Scots', Renaissance Studies, 35 (2021), 788-810 (p. 801).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)