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Add MS 49999
- Record Id:
- 040-002083195
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002083194
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001308.0x000138
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 49999
- Title:
- Book of Hours ('The De Brailes Hours') (formerly known as 'The Dyson Perrins Hours')
- Scope & Content:
-
Book of Hours, known as the 'De Brailes Hours' after the Oxford illuminator William de Brailes, who left two signatures in the manuscript (ff. 43r, 47r, see Provenance). The manuscript is one of the earliest known Books of Hours to survive. Its liturgical content is close to the use of Sarum as codified in the early 14th century, but contains several differences (see Donovan, The de Brailes Hours (1991), Appendix 2).
Contents:
ff. 1r-65r: Hours of the Virgin, including: Matins (ff. 1r-13r); Lauds, with suffrages to of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Cross, St Edmund (imperfect), St Laurence, St Catherine of Alexandria, St Margaret, All Saints, and for Peace (ff. 13r-31v); Prime (ff. 32r-38v); Terce (ff. 39r-43r); Sext (ff. 43v-47r); None (imperfect) (ff. 47v-50v); Vespers (imperfect) with insertions (ff. 51r-52v and 57r) including Psalms 109, 112 and 147 in a different, Italian hand (see Donovan 1991, p. 32) (ff. 53r-59v); Compline (imperfect) (ff 60r-64v); 'Salve regina' added by the Italian hand (f. 65r).
ff. 66r-89r: The Seven Penitential Psalms and the Litany of the Saint, and Collects; the Litany includes amongst the martyrs Alban, Oswald, Edmund, Edward, Thomas, and Columbanus, amongst the confessors Dunstan, Benedict, Giles, Leonard, Botulf and Julian, and amongst the virgins the Oxford saint Frideswide, Mildred and Radegunde.
ff. 90r-102r: Gradual Psalms (Psalms 119-133).
ff. 102v-105v: Prayers in Anglo-Norman French added by two hands: Prose prayer for special intentions, mentioning Richard of Newark, Richard of Westey and Bartholomew of Grimstone, incipit: 'Jo dei preir pur frere richart de nevere e pur frere richart de westey e pur frere bartelemeu de grimistum et pur tut frere prechr' e menur' ke Deus me dunt' (ff. 102v); Prayer to the Virgin Mary in mono-rhyming quatrains, divided in three parts: Aves, incipit: 'Ave seinte marie la mere au rei iesu'; Joys, incipit: 'Gloriuse reine mere au creatur'; and Litany of saints, including invocations to Peter, Paul, Andrew, James, Thomas, James and Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Thaddeus, Matthias, Barnabas, Stephen, Laurence, George, Nicholas and Thomas of Canterbury (imperfect) (ff. 102v-104v); Three prayers (written by the second hand), incipit: 'Duz Sire Ki peine sufris e mort en la croix'; 'Duce dame mere de pite'; 'Sire sain pol ki tant fustes angusse' (f. 105v). For those prayers, see Dean and Boulton 1999, no. 740.
Decoration:
5 miniatures in colours and gold, at the beginning of the Hours of the Virgin (ff. 1r, 32r, 39r, 43v, 47v), with 2 miniatures missing at the beginning of Vespers and Compline (after ff. 50v, 59v).
Numerous historiated initials in colours and gold, with marginal extensions at the beginning of all major sections of the text (ff. 1v, 3v, 4r, 5v, 7v, 9r, 9v, 10v, 11r, 13v, 14v, 15r, 16v, 17v, 19v, 21r, 23r, 24r, 26r, 27r, 27v, 28r, 29r, 29v, 30r, 30v, 32v, 33r, 34r, 36r, 38r, 39v, 40v, 41v, 42v, 43r, 44r, 44v, 45v, 46v, 47r, 48r, 49r, 49v, 50v, 53r, 54r, 54v, 55v, 56r, 58r, 59r, 60r, 61r, 62v, 62v, 63r, 63v, 64v, 66r, 67v, 69r, 72r, 75r, 78r, 79r, 81r, 87v, 88r, 88v, 90r, 90v, 91v, 92v, 93r, 94r, 95r, 96r, 97v, 98r, 98v, 100v, 101r, 101v).
All miniatures and initials are accompanied by captions in Anglo-Norman French explaining their contents.
8 foliate initials with marginal extensions in colours and gold (ff. 22r, 38v, 39v, 44r, 48r, 64v, 94v, 96v).
Verse initials alternately in blue and gold with red or blue pen-flourishing.
Line endings in blue and red, occasionally in gold.
Bas-de-page pen-flourished decoration in blue, red and gold, with animal motifs, e. g, a fish (f. 8v) or a dragon (f. 11r).
Other manuscripts associated with William de Brailes and his workshop are: a series of leaves taken from a Psalter and divided between Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 330 (bearing de Brailes's signature, f. 3r) and New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M. 913); Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS lat. bibl. e. 7 (the 'de Brailes Bible'); Oxford, New College, MS 322; Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 350/567; Harley MS 2813 (Bible); a series of leaves from a psalter or bible divided between Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery MS 106 and Paris, Wildenstein Collection, Musée Marmotten (unnumbered); and Stockholm, National Museum B. 2010 (Psalter).
The subjects of the miniatures and historiated initials are:
f. 1r, Four scenes in medallions replacing the initials 'D'(omine), at the beginning of the Hours to the Virgin: 1. the Betrayal; 2. the Flagellation of Christ and Peter's first denial; 3. the Mocking of Christ and Peter's second denial; 4. Christ being reviled and Peter's third denial, with (in the margin) Peter weeping (Matins).
Scenes from the Life of the Virgin:
f. 1v, Historiated initial 'D'(eus) of the rejection of Joachim's offering at the Temple (Matins). f. 1v, Historiated initial 'V'(enite) of a servant reproaching Anna for being barren (Matins).
f. 3v, Historiated initial 'Q'(uem) of the Annunciation to Joachim (Matins).
f. 4r, Historiated initial 'D'(omine) of the Annunciation to Anna (Matins).
f. 5v, Historiated initial 'C'(eli) of Joachim and Anna embracing (Matins).
f. 7v, Historiated initial 'D'(omini) of the Nativity of the Virgin (Matins).
f. 9r, Historiated initial 'S'(ancta) of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple (Matins).
f. 9v, Historiated initial 'S'(ancta) of the miraculous flowering of Joseph's rod (Matins).
f. 10v, Historiated initial 'S'(ancta) of the Marriage of the Virgin and Joseph (Matins).
f. 11r, Historiated initial 'T'(e deum) of the Annunciation (Matins).
f. 13r, Historiated initial 'D'(eus) of the Visitation (Matins).
Scenes from the Life of Christ:
f. 13v, Historiated initial 'D'(ominus) of Joseph's Dream (Lauds).
f. 14v, Historiated initial 'I'(n) including 3 medallions: 1-2. The Annunciation to the Shepherds; 3. The Nativity of Christ (Lauds). f. 15r, Historiated initial 'D'(eus) of the Presentation in the Temple (Lauds).
f. 16v, Historiated initial 'D'(eus) of the Magi before Herod (Lauds).
f. 17v, Historiated initial 'B'(enedicite) of Herod asking the Magi about the place of Christ's birth (Lauds).
f. 19v, Historiated initial 'L'(audate) of the Adoration of the Magi (Lauds).
f. 21r, Historiated initial 'C'(antate) of the Dream of the Magi (Lauds).
f. 23r, Historiated initial 'M'(aria) of the return journey of the Magi (Lauds).
f. 23v, Historiated initial 'O'( gloriosa) of the Massacre of the Innocents (Lauds).
f. 24r, Historiated initial 'B'(enedictus) of the Flight into Egypt (Lauds).
f. 26r, Historiated initial 'C'(oncede) of the Virgin and Child (Suffrages to the Virgin).
f. 27r, Historiated initial 'D'(eus) of the Pentecost (Suffrage to the Holy Spirit).
f. 27v, Historiated initial 'A'(d) of the Crucifixion (Suffrage to the Holy Cross).
f. 28r, Historiated initial 'D'(a nobis) of the Martyrdom of St Laurence (Suffrage to St Laurence).
f. 29r, Historiated initial 'O'(mnipotens) of St Catherine being buried by Angels on Mount Sinai (Suffrage to St Catherine).
f. 29v, Historiated initial 'D'(eus) of St Margaret emerging from the dragon (Suffrage to St Margaret).
f. 30r, Historiated initial 'I'(n) divided in 5 semicircles containing: 1. Virgin Mary and the Angels; 2. the Apostles; 3. the Martyrs; 4. the Confessors; 5. the Virgins (Suffrage to all Saints).
f. 30v, Initial 'D'(eus) of Christ in Majesty (Suffrage for peace).
f. 32r, Miniature divided in 4 medallions: 1. Christ before Annas; 2. Christ before Caiaphas; 3. Christ before Pilate; 4. Christ before Herod (Prime). Scenes from the legend of Theophilus:f. 32v, Historiated initial 'V'(eni) of Theophilus refusing to become a bishop (Prime). f. 33r, Historiated initial 'B'(eatus) of Theophilus in poverty (Prime).
f. 34r, Historiated initial 'Q'(uare) Theophilus doing homage to the Devil (Prime).
f. 36r, Historiated initial 'V'(erba) of Theophilus restored to his position (Prime).
f. 38r, Historiated initial 'I'(n) of Theophilus praying to the Virgin (Prime).
f. 39r, Miniature divided in 4 medallions: 1-2. Christ before Pilate; 3. Pilate washing his hands; 4. Christ being led away (Terce). f. 39v, Historiated initial 'A'(d dominum) of the Virgin appearing to Theophilus (Terce).
f. 40v, Historiated initial 'L'(evavi) of the Virgin taking Theophilus's bond from the Devil (Terce).
f. 41v, Historiated initial 'L'(etatus) of the Virgin returning the bond to Theophilus (Terce). f. 42v, Historiated initial 'A'(b initio) of Theophilus burning the bond (Terce).
f. 43r, Historiated initial 'C'(once[de]) of William de Brailes as a tonsured man at prayer, accompanied by the inscription: 'w. de brail' q. me depeint' (Terce).
f. 43v, Miniature divided in 4 medallions: 1. Incident of the wandering Jew; 2. Christ carrying the Cross; 3. Christ being stripped of his raiment; 4. Christ standing at the foot of the Cross (Sext). f. 44r, Historiated initial 'A'(d te) of the Virgin taking Theophilus's soul to heaven (Sext).
Scenes from the story of the priest who only knew the mass of the Virgin:
f. 44v, Historiated initial 'N'(isi) of a priest saying the mass (Sext).
f. 45v, Historiated initial 'Q'(ui) of the priest being suspended by St Thomas Becket (Sext).
f. 46v, Historiated initial 'E'(t) of St Thomas refusing to reinstate the priest (Sext).
f. 47r, Historiated initial 'C'(oncede) of William de Brailes as a tonsured man at prayer, accompanied by the inscription: 'w. de brail' (Sext).
f. 47v, Miniature divided in 3 sections: 1. The Crucifixion; 2. Virgin Mary and St John at the Cross; 3. Longinus piercing the side of Christ (None).
f. 48r, Historiated initial 'I'(n) of St Thomas refusing to reinstate the priest the second time (None).
f. 49r, Historiated initial 'N'(isi) of the Virgin vesting St Thomas with a hair tunic (None).
f. 49v, Historiated initial 'B'(eati) of the priest crossing the sea (None).
f. 50v, Historiated initial 'E'(t) of St Thomas refusing to reinstate the priest the third time (None).
f. 53r, Historiated initial 'L'(etatus), of the Virgin telling the priest about St Thomas's hair tunic (Vespers).
f. 54r, Historiated initial 'A'(d te) of the priest crossing the sea (Vespers).
f. 54v, Historiated initial 'N'(isi) of the priest telling St Thomas of the Virgin's revelation to him (Vespers).
f. 55v, Historiated initial 'Q'(ui) of St Thomas reinstating the priest (Vespers).
f. 56r, Historiated initial 'I'(n) of the priest celebrating mass (Vespers).
f. 58r, Historiated initial 'B'(eata) of the death of the priest (Vespers).
f. 58r, Historiated initial 'A'(ve) of three clerks singing (Vespers).
f. 59r, Historiated initial 'M'(agnificat) of Archangel Gabriel announcing to the Virgin her death (Vespers).
f. 60r, Historiated initial 'U'(sque) of the Apostles salute the Virgin (Compline).
f. 61r, Historiated initial 'I'(udica) of the Death of the Virgin; the Virgin carried to burial; the burial of the Virgin; the Assumption of the Virgin's soul; the Coronation of the Virgin (Compline).
f. 61v, Historiated initial 'S'(epe) of the nine Jews being blinded at the Burial of the Virgin (Compline).
f. 62v, Historiated initial 'D'(omine) of St Peter restoring the sight of one of the Jews (Compline).
f. 63r, Historiated initial 'S'(icut) of the Jew curing one of his blinded countrymen (Compline).
f. 63v, Historiated initial 'V'(irgo) of the Jew failing to cure one of his countrymen who refuses to believe in Christ (Compline).
f. 64v, Historiated initial 'Q'(ueram) of a woman praying (Compline).
Scenes from the story of David's sin against Uriah the Hittite:
f. 66r, Historiated initial 'D'(omine) of David and Nathan (Psalm 6).
f. 67v, Historiated initial B(eati) of David's penance (Psalm 32).
f. 69r, Historiated initial 'D'(omine) David praying (Psalm 38).
f. 72r, Historiated initial 'M'([ise]rere) of David receiving the discipline (Psalm 51).
f. 75r, Historiated initial 'D'(omine) of a woman in prayer (Psalm 102).
f. 78r, Historiated initial 'D'(e profundis) of David at prayer (Psalm 130).
f. 79r, Historiated initial 'D'(omine) of David in prayer (Psalm 143).
f. 81r, Historiated initial 'K'(yrieleison) of Christ as a judge (Litany).
f. 87v, Historiated initial 'D'(eus qui proprium) of a woman praying (Collect).
f. 88r, Historiated initial 'P'(retende Domine) of woman in prayer (Collect).
f. 88v, Historiated initial 'D'(eus qui est sanctorum) of a man praying (Collect).
Scenes from the story of Susanna:
f. 90r, Historiated initial 'A'(d dominum) of Susanna praying (Psalm 119).
f. 90v, Historiated initial 'L'(evavi) of Susanna being brought before the judges (Psalm 120).
f. 91v, Historiated initial 'L'(etatus) of Daniel questioning the first elder (Psalm 121).
f. 92v, Historiated initial 'A'(d te levavi) of Daniel questioning the second elder (Psalm 122).
f. 93r, Historiated initial 'N'(isi) of the elders being exposed as liars (Psalm 123).
f. 94r, Historiated initial 'Q'(ui confidunt) of the elders being burnt (Psalm 124).
f. 95r, Historiated initial 'N'(isi) of Susanna praising God (Psalm 126).
f. 96r, Historiated initial 'B'(eati) of Susanna's soul being carried up to heaven (Psalm 127).
Scenes from the story of the burgess who gave a chalice to the church of St Laurence:
f. 97v, Historiated initial 'D'(e profundis) of the burgess's gift (Psalm 129).
f. 98v, Historiated initial 'M'(emento) of St Michael and the Devil contending for the burgess's soul (Psalm 131).
f. 100v, Historiated initial 'E'(cce) of a recluse watching the Devil weighing the burgess's sins and St Michael his good deeds (Psalm 132).
f. 101r, Historiated initial 'E'(cce) of St Laurence placing the chalice on the scale (Psalm 133).
f. 101v, Historiated initial 'L'(audate) of the burgess's soul being carried up to heaven.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002083194
040-002083195 - Is part of:
- Add MS 49999-50005 : DYSON PERRINS MANUSCRIPTS
Add MS 49999 : Book of Hours ('The De Brailes Hours') (formerly known as 'The Dyson Perrins Hours') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002083194[0001]/040-002083195
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 49999-50005
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_49999 (digital images currently unavailable)
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- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
French
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1235
- End Date:
- 1245
- Date Range:
- c 1240
- 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: 150 x 125 mm (text space 115 x 80 mm).
Foliation: ff. vii + 105 (ff. i and vii are parchment pastedowns; ff. ii-iii are medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning, ff. v-vi are medieval parchment flyleaves at the end, f. iv is a remaining fragment of an excised parchment leaf after f. 105).
Script: Gothic. ff. 51r-52v, 57r-57v, and 65r-65v are written by a different 13th-century Italian hand.
Binding: Pre-1600; England. Medieval binding, perhaps contemporary with the manuscript (see Pollard, 'The Construction of English Twelfth-Century Bindings' (1962), p. 3). Beech-boards covered with sheepskin, originally stained puce; with traces of metal bosses on each cover, and a silk strap with a pin fastening; a star-shaped silver nail in the fragment of the strap. The spine and tailband are missing.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England, South (Oxford).
Provenance
William de Brailes (fl. c. 1230 - c. 1260), illuminator documented in Oxford between 1238 and 1252 in relation to several property transactions and as owning a house on Catte Street (see Donovan, The de Brailes Hours (1991), Appendix 5), illuminated by him: his signatures: 'W. de Brailes qui me depeint.' (ff. 43r and 47r), made presumably for a woman: includes four images of a woman in prayer (ff. 64v, 75r, 87v, 88r).
Added prayers in Anglo-Norman French including prayers for friars Richard of Newark (Nottinghamshire), Richard of Westey, and Bartholomew of Grimston (d. c. 1265; joined the Dominican order in c. 1240, probably at Cambridge, see Hinnebusch, The Early English Friars Preachers (1951), p. 262, and Forte, 'A Cambridge Dominican Collector of Exempla in the Thirteenth Century' (1958), pp. 138-39), mid-13th century (f. 102v).
Jacques Rosenthal (b. 1854, d. 1937), bookseller of Munich: sold to Dyson Perrins in 1906 for £1350.
Charles William Dyson Perrins (b. 1906, d.1958), collector and bibliophile: his bookplate (f. i recto); former shelfmark: Dyson Perrins MS 4; acquired from him by the British Museum in 1959 with the assistance of the Art Fund.
- Former External References:
- Dyson Perrins MS 4
- Administrative Context:
- England, South (Oxford).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
G. Warner, Descriptive Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts in the Library of C.W. Perrins (Oxford: printed at the University Press, 1920), pp. 11-25.
S.C. Cockerell, The Work of W. de Brailes, an English illuminator of the thirteenth century (Cambridge: Roxburghe Club, 1930).
A.C. Fryer, 'Theophilus the Penitent as Represented in Art', Archaeological Journal, 92 (1935), 289-333 (pp. 295, 307, 319).
W.A. Hinnebusch, The Early English Friars Preachers (Rome: Ad S. Sabinae, 1951), p. 262.
G. Pollard, 'William de Brailes', Bodleian Library Record, 5 (1955), 202-09.
S. Forte, 'A Cambridge Dominican Collector of Exempla in the Thirteenth Century', Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 28 (1958), 115-48 (pp. 138-39).
G. Pollard, 'The Construction of English Twelfth-Century Bindings', The Library, 5th series, 17 (1962), pp. 13-14.
[Derek Howard Turner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 5 (London: British Museum, 1965), no. 8.
Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London, British Museum, 1967), no. 14.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), pl. 27.
Nigel J. Morgan, 'Notes on the Post-Conquest Calendar, Litany and Martyrology of the Cathedral Priory of Winchester with a Consideration of Winchester Diocese Calendars of the Pre-Sarum period', in The Vanishing Past: Medieval Studies Presented to Chrisopher Hohler, ed. by Alan Borg and Andrew Martindale (Oxford: British Archeological Reports, 1981), pp. 133-74.
Nigel J. Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (Harvey Miller: London, 1982), I: 1190-1250, no. 73.
Janet Backhouse, Books of Hours (London: British Library, 1985), fig. 39.
Claire Donovan, 'The Mise-en-page of Early Books of Hours in England', in Medieval Book Production: Assessing the Evidence, ed. by Linda L. Brownrigg (Los Altos Hills, California: Anderson-Lovelace, 1990), pp. 147-62, fig. 1.
Claire Donovan, The de Brailes Hours: Shaping the Book of Hours in Thirteenth-Century Oxford (London, British Library, 1991), p. 203, no. 20.
Michael Camille, ‘An Oxford University Textbook illuminated by William de Brailes,’ The Burlington Magazine, 137 (1995), 292-99.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in The British Library (London: British Library, 1997), pl. 55.
Peter Kidd, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Sam Fogg, 1999), p. 8 [sale catalogue].
Ruth Dean and Maureen Bolton, Anglo-Norman Literature, A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), nos. 740, 830.
Nigel J. Morgan, ‘The Decorative Ornament of the Text and Page in Thirteenth-century England: Initials, Border Extensions and Line Fillers’, in Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 1-33 (p. 13).
C.M. Kauffmann, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1500 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003), fig. 116.
Paul Binski, Becket’s Crown: Art and Imagination in Gothic England 1170-1300 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), pls 114, 151.
Eamon Duffy, Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers 1240-1570 (New Haven: Yale, 2006), pp. 8, pl. 2.
Peter Kidd, 'A Franciscan Bible Illuminated in the Style of William de Brailes', Electonic British Library Journal, 2007, article 8 [http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2007articles/article8.html] [accessed 6 August 2008].
Deirdre Jackson, 'The Influence of the Theophilus Legend: An Overlooked Miniature in Alfonso X's Cantigas de Santa Maria and its Wider Context', in Under the Influence: The Concept of Influence and the Study of Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. by John Lowden and Alixe Bovey (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), pp. 75-87 (p. 79, fig. 2).
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), pl. 35.
Aden Kumler, Translating Truth: Ambitious Images and Religious Knowledge in Late Medieval France and England (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), pp. 110 (fig. 29), 111, 255 (n. 28).
Kathryn M. Rudy, Rubrics, Images and Indulgences in Late Medieval Netherlandish Manuscripts, Library of the Written Word, 55, The Manuscript World, 8 (Brill: Leiden, 2017), p. 143.
Laura Cleaver, 'Charles William Dyson Perrins as a Collector of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts c. 1900-1920', Perspectives médiévales [Online], 41 (2020), 1-26 (p. 14).
- Exhibitions:
- The Middle Ages, (online), 26 March 2015-
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Perrins, Charles William Dyson, collector and bibliophile, 1864-1958
Rosenthal, Jacques, bookseller, of Munich, 1854-1937
William de Brailes, illuminator, fl c 1230-c 1260 - Related Material:
- Extract from the The British Library Catalogue of Additions (2000): '49999. DYSON PERRINS MANUSCRIPTS DYSON PERRINS MSS. Vol. I (formerly Dyson Perrins MS. 4). Book of Hours executed in England probably circa 1240, and illuminated by William de Brailes. See Warner, op. cit., i, pp. 11-25, ii, pls. iv-vi; Brown, Meredith-Owens, Turner, op. cit., pp. 30-1, pl. xviia; J. M. Backhouse, Books of Hours, 1985, p. 42, pl. 39; N. J. Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts [I] 1190-1250, 1982, no. 73, ills. 241-7; and C. Donovan, The de Brailes Hours: Shaping the Book of Hours in Thirteenth-Century Oxford, The British Library, 1991, where the MS. is extensively illustrated. Morgan, op. cit., states that the present MS. 'is the earliest fully illustrated example in English art of a Book of Hours', while Donovan, op. cit., p. 23, describes the MS. as 'the first book of hours'. Dyson Perrins bookplate (f. i). Purchased by Dyson Perrins from J. Rosenthal of Munich in 1906.
Vellum; ff. vii+105. 150 x 123mm. (text space 115 x 80mm.). Gatherings of eight leaves: iv lacks 4 (Donovan, op. cit., pp. 32-3, 160, argues that the central bifolium in this gathering was added by de Brailes after the rest of the MS. was complete, and that the leaf was excised before the MS. was bound); vii lacks 4 but has two insertions in its place; viii lacks 3 but has a leaf inserted at the beginning and another at the end. 12 lines to a page (except the added folio 28, which has 11 lines). Written in a square formal hand, probably the same as that of Oxford, New College MS. 322, a psalter also illuminated by the atelier directed by de Brailes and reproduced in S. C. Cockerell, The Work of W. de Brailes, Roxburghe Club, Cambridge, 1930, pls. iii-xiii. Verse initials alternately in blue and gold embellished with red and blue penwork. Line endings in blue and red, sometimes also gold. They frequently take the form of scroll work, although foliage, diaper and sometimes animal motifs occur: e.g., a fish on f. 8b, a dragon on f. 11. Another motif is herring bone or feather work ornament, which is especially common in many of the lower margins of the first three sections of the MS.
The binding of the MS. was formerly thought to be Italian of the 15th cent. Pollard, 'The Construction of English Twelfth-Century Bindings', The Library, 5th ser., xvii, 1962, p. 3 and note, states that it is English work strictly contemporary with the MS. It consists of beech-boards covered with pink sheep-skin, originally stained puce. Spine and tailband missing. There were once five metal bosses on each cover, and a silk strap with a pin fastening. A star-shaped silver nail remains in the fragment of the strap. The MS. was heavily cropped before binding.
Contents:
1. ff. 1-65. Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, arranged as follows:-
(a) Matins. ff. 1-13;- (b) Lauds, with commemorations of the Holy Ghost, the Cross, St Edmund K.M. (imperfect), St Laurence, St Catherine of Alexandria, St Margaret, All Saints and for Peace. ff. 13-31b;- (c) Prime.
ff. 32-38b;- (d) Terce. ff. 39-43;- (e) Sext. ff. 43b-47;- (f) None. Imperfect. ff. 47b-50b;- (g) Vespers. Imperfect. Ff. 51, 52 and 57 are insertions containing Pss. 109, 112 and 147 in a hand formerly thought to be 15th cent. Italian, but more likely by an Italian scribe working in England in the thirteenth century: see Donovan, op. cit., p. 32. ff. 53-59b ;- (h) Compline. Imperfect. ff. 60-64b. Another addition in an Italianate hand containing the Salve regina is on f. 65.
2. ff. 66-89. The Seven Penitential Psalms and the Litany of the Saints. The invocations in the Litany include amongst the martyrs Alban, Oswald, Edmund, Edward, Thomas, and Columbanus, amongst the confessors Dunstan, Benedict, Giles, Leonard, Botulf and Julian, and amongst the virgins Frideswide, Mildred and Radegunde. The presence of Columbanus amongst the martyrs other than by mistake is not readily explicable. No definite localisation of the MS. is possible from the evidence afforded by its Litany, which represents personal rather than local preference.
3. ff. 90-102. Gradual Psalms.
4. ff. 102b-105b. Additions in French in two hands of the third quarter of the 13th cent. In the first hand are:- (a) Memorandum on persons to be prayed for, mentioning 'frere richart de neuerc . . . frere richart de westey . . . frere bartelemeu de grimiston' and all friars preachers and minors 'e pur tuz me confessurs'. Bartholomew of Grimstone was a Dominican who joined the order apparently at Cambridge circa 1240 and died circa 1265: see W. A. Hinnebusch, The Early English Friars Preachers, Rome, 1951, p. 262, and S. Forte, 'A Cambridge Dominican Collector of Exempla in the Thirteenth Century', Archivum Fratrum Praedictorum, Rome, xxviii, 1958, pp. 138-9, both quoting from the story of his conversion in Royal MS. 7 D. I, f. 108b. f. 102b;- (b) Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, beg. 'Duce dame seinte marie pricele grace', and followed by salutations to the Virgin in rhyming quatrains consisting of twenty-six stanzas each beginning 'Ave seinte marie', the first stanza beginning 'Ave seinte marie la mere au rei iesu'. ff. 102b-104b;- (c) Further invocations to the Virgin, beg. 'Gloriuse reine mere au creatur', followed by invocations to SS Peter, Paul, Andrew, James, Thomas, James and Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Thaddeus, Matthias, Barnabas, Stephen, Laurence, George, Nicholas and Thomas of Canterbury (imperfect). S. C. Cockerell (in Warner, op. cit., i, p. 16) quotes the end of the invocations from a MS. which belonged to Reading Abbey at the end of the 13th cent. and was subsequently in the library of George Dunn. ff. 104b-105b. In the second hand are written on f. 105b three prayers:- (a) 'Duz Sire Ki peine sufris e mort en la croix';- (b) 'Duce dame mere de pite';- (c) 'Sire sain pol ki tant fustes'.
The illumination of the MS. consists of eight decorated initials (ff. 22, 38b, 39b, 44, 48, 64b, 94b, 96b) without figured scenes, eighty-eight historiated initials containing ninety-three subjects and eighteen larger miniatures. Larger miniatures are missing at the beginning of Vespers and Compline. The arrangement and subject matter of the historiated initials and miniatures are discussed by Morgan, op. cit., and Donovan, op. cit., pp. 32, 103-4. (...)
The illumination in the present MS. is one of the best examples of the work of William de Brailes, who signed self portraits on ff. 43 and 47, and, according to Donovan, op. cit., pp. 9, 114, also depicts himself in the historiated initial on f. 88v. De Brailes, described by Donovan, op. cit., p. 10 as 'the best recorded professional illuminator of thirteenth-century England', directed an atelier of illuminators and scribes at Catte Street in Oxford, and flourished circa 1230-1260: see further, ibid., pp. 10-24, 206-7. A picture of the Last Judgement, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS. 330, leaf 3, one of a series of leaves taken from a psalter (other leaves of which are New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS. M.913), is also signed by de Brailes. Donovan, op. cit., pp. 202-3, also attributes to de Brailes the following MSS.:- Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. lat. bibl. e. 7 (de Brailes Bible); Oxford, New College, MS. 322; Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS. 350/567; and the leaves from a psalter or bible which are now Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery MS. 106 and Paris, Wildenstein Collection, Musée Marmotten (unnumbered). Donovan lists, op. cit., pp. 201-5, extant illuminated MSS. made in Oxford between 1200 and 1270, a number of which have links with the de Brailes workshop. The present MS. was perhaps executed for a lay person, probably the lady depicted on f. 64b and elsewhere. Because the initial on f. 64b represents Susanna from the story in the Book of Daniel, Donovan, op. cit., p. 24, suggests that the patron of the MS. was called Susanna, and proposes that she lived in the parish of St Laurence, North Hinksey, co. Oxon. The additions of prayers for Dominican friars suggest a connection with a Dominican house.'