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Add MS 22567

Record Id:

032-002096533

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002096533

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000041.0x000272

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 22567

Title:

Italian Book of Hours

Scope & Content:

This richly decorated Latin Book of Hours from the last decade of the fifteenth century contains standard texts such as the Hours of the Cross, the Hours of the Virgin Mary, the Gradual Psalms, the Seven Penitential Psalms, and an Office of The Dead. It also includes a section with prayers that are not organised according to the liturgical hours, written in Italian (ff. 203r-239r). The manuscript was decorated in Bruges by an artist who was part of the circle of the Master of the David Scenes of the Grimani Breviary (active c. 1500, Bruges).

Contents:

ff. 1r-12v: Calendar.

ff. 14r-22v: The Mass of the Virgin Mary, ‘[rubric:] Incipit missa beate maria virginis’.

ff. 23r-30v: Lections from the Gospels, ‘[rubric:] Secundum Johannem’.

ff. 32r-36v: The Hours of the Cross, ‘[rubric:] Incipit Offitium de Sancta Cruce’.

ff. 36v-37v: A prayer attributed to St Anselm of Cantebury, ‘[rubric:] Oratio sancti Anselmi’.

ff. 39r-109v: The Office of the Virgin Mary, ‘[rubric:] Incipit officium beate marie virginis secundum usum Romane curie’.

ff. 110r-123r: The Gradual Psalms, ‘[rubric:] canticum graduum absque inte incipit in psalmi semper dicuntur sedendo Orationes et versiculi flexis genibus Psalmus David’.

ff. 126r-139r: The Seven Penitential Psalms, ‘[rubric:] Incipiunt septem psalmi penitentiales’,

ff. 139v-150r: A litany of saints.

ff. 152r-201r: The Office of the Dead, ‘[rubric:] Incipit officium mortuorum’.

ff. 203r-211v: A prayer to Christ, attributed to St Ambrose ‘[rubric:] Questa es ma [una?] divota oratione, la quale diceva sancto Ambrogio sempre innanzi che celebrassi la sua messa [etc.] [prayer:] Sommo sacerdote . Vero pontifice iesu christo [etc.]’.

ff. 212r-218v: A prayer to the Virgin Mary, ‘[rubric:] oratio devota de domina maria [prayer:] Ma domina sancta maria [etc.]’.

ff. 220r-227v: The Mass of St Gregory, ‘[rubric:] Questa es una divota oratione che diceva Sancto Gregorio’.

ff. 228r-232v: A prayer to Christ, ‘[rubric:] La oration a dio padre [prayer:] Dolcissimo signore mio jhesu christo [etc.]’.

ff. 233r-237v: The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross attributed to the Venerable Bede (b. 673/4, d. 735), offering its reader protection against physical and spiritual harm and a vision of the Virgin Mary thirty days before one’s death, ‘[rubric:] Questa e l’oratione di sancto beda delle sette parole che idio disse pendente nella croce [etc.]’.

ff. 239r-265v: The Hours of the Passion, ‘[rubric:] Incipit offitium passionis domini nostri ihesu Christi [etc.]’.

[ff. 13r, 30v, 31r, 38r, 150v, 151r, 123v-125r, 150v, 151r, 201v, 202r, 219r, 233r, 238r are blank].

Decoration:

9 full page miniatures facing full scatter borders in colours and gold.

The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:

f. 13v: The Virgin with Christ Child.

f. 31v: The Crucifixion.

f. 38v: The Annunciation.

f. 125v: King David, praying.

f. 151v: The fate of the souls of the deceased.

f. 202v: St Ambrose, writing.

f. 219v: The Mass of St Gregory.

f. 233v: The Crucifixion.

f. 238v: Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

6 half-page miniatures with full scatter borders in colours and gold:

f. 23r: St John the Evangelist.

f. 25r: St Luke the Evangelist.

f. 27r: St Matthew the Evangelist.

f. 29r: St Mark the Evangelist.

f. 32r: The Arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

f. 39r: Adam and Eve at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 quarter-page miniatures with partial (two- or three-sided) scatter borders in colours and gold:

f. 49v: The Virgin Mary and St Anne.

f. 72r: The Nativity.

f. 77r: The Annunciation to the Shepherds.

f. 81v: The Adoration of the Magi.

f. 85r: The Circumcision.

f. 89r: The Massacre of the Innocents.

f. 97r: The Flight into Egypt.

f. 110r: A woman raising her arms (in prayer?), possibly a female patron.

f. 211r: The Pièta.

f. 239r: The Man of Sorrows.

12 small miniatures with colours and gold in margins of the calendar (ff. 1r-12r). 1 text page with a full scatter border in colours and gold that is not facing a full-page miniature (f. 227r). Numerous large initials in imitation gold in green or purple frames. Numerous small initials in purple in frames of imitation gold.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-002096533", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 22567: Italian Book of Hours" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002096533

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-002096533

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Italian
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1485

End Date:

1495

Date Range:

c 1490 - c 1500

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 100 x 70 mm (text space: 65 x 45 mm).

Foliation: ff. 265 (+ 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 1 parchment stub between f. [266] and f. [267].

Script: Humanistic.

Binding: Post-1600. Black leather binding with decoration of silver filigree on upper and lower binding and two clasps, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: 'HORAE B. MARIAE VIRG. SEC. US. ROMANUM'.

Custodial History:

Origin: Netherlands, S. (Bruges).

Provenance:

Girolamo di Leonardo Frescobaldi (Florence) and Dionora di Piero Gualterotti, in the 1490s: their heraldic devices painted in the full borders: the Frescobaldi coat of arms (Gules three chess-rooks argent, on a chief or) on f. 31v; the Gualterotti coat of arms (per bend indented, or and azure) on f. 32r.

'The Library of an Amateur': his sale, Puttick & Simpson, 5 August 1858, lot 270 (note on f. [ii] recto); purchased by Boone & Boone.

Thomas Boone (b. 1790, d. 1873) and William Boone (b. 1795, d. 1870), London booksellers: purchased by the British Museum for £12 on 5 August 1858.

Publications:

Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1854-1860 (London: Clowes, 1875), pp. 674-75.

Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pls.101-02.

Anna Malipiero, ‘Le livre d'heures en Italie septentrionale: Diffusion d'un instrument dévotionnel de l'Europe du Nord’, in Positions des thèses soutenues par les élèves de la promotion de 2008 pour obtenir le diplôme d'archiviste paléographe (Paris: Droz, 2008), pp. 207-14 (p. 208, p. 213).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Related Material:

Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1854-1860 (London: Clowes, 1875), pp. 674-75:

'HORÆ B. Mariæ Virginis, etc.: 1. Calendarium, f. 1.

2. "Missa beate Marie Virginis," f. 14.

3. Lectiones ex Evangeliis de Nativitate, ff. 23, 25, 27, 29.

4. "Offitium de Sancta Cruce," et "Oratio sancti Anselmi," ff. 32, 36 b.

5. "Offitium beate Marie Uirginis, secundum vsum Romane curie," f. 39.

6. "Canticum graduum:" scil. Psalmi quindecim CXIX-CXXXIII., unà cum orationibus et versiculis, f. 110.

7. "Septem psalmi penitentiales," Litania, et orationes, f. 126.

8. "Offitium mortuorum," f. 152.

9. "Una diuota oratione, la quale diceua sancto Ambrogio sempre innanzi che celebrassi la sua messa." Ital. f. 203.

10. "Oratio deuota de domina nostra." Ital. f. 212.

11. "Vna diuota oratione che diceua Sancto Gregorio." Ital. f. 220.

12. "La oration a Dio padre, etc.:" beginning, "Dolcissimo signore mio Jhesu Christo," etc. Ital. f. 228.

13. "L'oratione di Sancto Beda, delle sette parole che idio disse, pendente nella croce." Ital. f. 234.

14. "Offitium Passionis domini nostri Ihesu Christi," f. 239. Vellum; XVth cent.; in Italian writing, with miniatures and illuminated borders by a Flemish artist. On f. 31b are the arms of Frescobaldi, and on f. 32 those of Gualterotti. In an old binding, with clasps and ornaments of silver filigree. Duodecimo'.