Add MS 50002

From the printed Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1956-1965 (2000), pp. 191-95:

'THE MIRANDOLA HOURS

DYSON PERRINS MSS. Vol. IV (formerly Dyson Perrins MS. 95). Book of Hours written and illuminated in Italy for Galeotto Pico della Mirandola I, Prince of Mirandola and Count of Concordia (d. 1499), and his wife, Bianca Maria d'Este (d. 1506), daughter of Niccolo III, Marquess of Ferrara; circa 1490-1499. Latin. See further G. F. Warner, op. cit., i, pp. 210-15, and ii, pl. lxxxii; T. J. Brown, G. M. Meredith-Owens and D. H. Turner, op. cit., p. 33, fig. XXB; D. H. Turner, Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series V, 1965, no. XLIII; J. S. Dearden, 'John Ruskin, the Collector', The Library, 5th series, xxi, 1966, p. 148; J. M. Backhouse, Books of Hours, 1985, p. 53, pl. 53. On Galeotto, see the entry in P. Litta, Celebri Famiglie Italiane, iv, and F. Ceretti, 'Galeotto I Pico', Atti e Memorie delle RR. Deputazioni di Storia Patria per le Provincie Modenesi e Parmensi, Modena, ser. iii, vol. ii, pt. 1, 1884, pp. 71-101. Belonged to John Ruskin (bookplate, f. i) and Michael Tomkinson of Franche Hall, Kidderminster (monogram bookplate, f. iv). Purchased by Dyson Perrins, Mar. 1905 (bookplate, f. iii). Label with old Dyson Perrins number '30', f. vii; labels with Dyson Perrins number '95', f. ii and on spine.

Vellum; ff. vii+114. 165 x 113mm. Slightly cropped. Text space 106 x 66mm. 19 lines. Gatherings of 10, except i12, viii6, ix6. Written in littera antiqua tonda, on which see J. Wardrop, 'Pierantonio Sallando and Girolamo Pagliarolo, Scribes to Giovanni II Bentivoglio', Signature, new series, 2, Nov. 1946, pp. 19-26. The letters in the present manuscript are sometimes slightly more elaborate in form than in the most typical examples of this script. For example, the stroke of the lobe in 'e' is often extended diagonally upwards; the right-hand stroke in 'a' is frequently looped over, forming a letter with two compartments; and the downward strokes in 'h' are curved inwards. These features suggest that this is an early example of this type of hand, which first appeared in the last years of the 15th cent. and the beginning of the 16th cent.

20th-cent. red morocco binding with gilt lettering on spine, by Katharine Adams (insignia on rear pastedown).

Contents:

1. ff. 1-12b. Calendar in black and red. Shows strong Franciscan influence, with, for example, the following feasts being given the higher grading and appearing in red: Bernardino of Siena (20 May); Anthony of Padua (14 June); Clare of Assisi (12 Aug.); Louis of Anjou (19 Aug.); Stigmata of St Francis (17 Sept.); Francis (4 Oct. with an octave also in red). Galeotto was buried in the church of St Francis in Mirandola and after his death Bianca Maria entered the nearby nunnery of St Louis of the Order of St Clare, which suggests that they both had a special devotion to the Franciscan order. The following saints assoicated with Mirandola and its locality are mentioned in the calendar: Germinianus (Modena) (31 Jan.); Agatha (Mirandola) (5 Feb.); Peregrinus (Modena) (1 Aug.).

2. ff. 13-60b. Hours of the Virgin 'secundum consuetudinem Romane curie' (f. 13).

3. ff. 63-78b. Penitential Psalms and Litany. The Litany also shows Franciscan influence. It invokes Dominic, Francis, Anthony, Bernard, Leonard and Bernardino of Siena, among monks and hermits; and Clare, Elizabeth, Anne and Ursula among virgins and widows.

4. ff. 79-82. Little Hours of the Cross.

5. ff. 85-114b. Office of the Dead.

The decoration, which is described in detail by Warner, op. cit., pp. 211-14, is as follows:

1. Full page miniatures marking the major divisions of the text. They have elaborately decorated borders and incorporate the title and first lines of the text in capitals with each line alternately in blue and gold. Their subjects are:- (a) Hours of the Virgin. The Annunciation. Set in a palace with columns, balconies, statues in niches, etc., which forms the borders. On the extreme right and left in the foreground are two gilded standards with flaming cressets from which are suspended two scrolls bearing the title and opening lines of the text. From the lower scroll are hung, left, the arms of Galeotto I and, right, the arms of his wife. The arms of the family of Pico della Mirandola (which lack the escutcheons of Concordia in Galeotto I's arms) appear in the top borders, on two corners of the palace and on the dome of a hexagonal entablature in the centre background. A phoenix is rising from this entablature and Cockerell (cited by Warner, op. cit., i, p. 212) has suggested that this may be an allusion to Galeotto I's elder brother, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (d. 1494), the famous philosopher, poet and scholar, who was described as the phoenix of his age. The cabalistic inscriptions on the canopy above the Virgin and elsewhere in the manuscript, e.g. on ff. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 in the calendar, may also refer to Giovanni, who was devoted to the study of the Cabala. At the bottom of the page is a representation of the Fall. f. 13;- (b) Penitential Psalms. David, playing a medieval fiddle. Framed in a rounded arch, on the top of which are the imperial arms which were incorporated into the arms of Pico della Mirandola. A plate bearing the letters 'RI', which perhaps refer to the illuminator, is hung on foliage suspended from the left column of the arch, which supports two tablets containing the opening of the text. Beneath the lower tablet at the foot of the arch is a picture of a child with a nimbus playing a portative organ, the bellows of which are supported by another child without a nimbus. f. 63;- (c) Hours of the Cross. The Crucifixion. Across the top and bottom of the miniature are scrolls bearing the title and beginning of the text. The border is blue with pink edging and contains decorative urns, columns, etc., with putti. The instruments of the passion appear in shields in the side borders and are borne by putti in the lower border. The lower border contains a medallion showing the discovery of the True Cross by the Empress Helena. f. 79;- (d) Office of the Dead. Death, shown as a skeleton wearing a black sash and carrying a scythe on his shoulder, standing in a chapel. The title and first lines of the office are written on two scrolls above and below this picture. Gold borders with blue edging, decorated with skulls, bones and snakes together with tiara, crown, etc., signifying the subjection of all to death. In the lower border is a medallion showing the resurrection of the dead at the Day of Judgement. f. 85.

2. Large historiated intials of 6 or 7 lines marking each main division of the Hours of the Virgin. Their subjects are:- (a) Lauds. The Presentation in the Temple. f. 21;- (b) Prime. The Nativity. Arms of Galeotto I in the lower border. f. 28b;- (c) Terce. The Adoration of the Magi. f. 32;- (d) Sext. The Resurrection. f. 35;- (e) None. The Ascension. f. 37b;- (f) Vespers. Pentecost. f. 40b;- (g) Compline. The Dormition of the Virgin. f. 46;-

(h) Psalms, etc., for particular days. Ps. 44. David playing a lute. f. 50. The borders of the pages bearing these initials are decorated, most commonly with standards with flaming cressets, frequently accompanied by scrolls bearing tags in honour of the Virgin, drawings of animals, birds, etc.

3. Large historiated and decorated 6 line initials, in gold on a plain blue ground with gold decoration, for seven psalms in Matins of the Hours of the Virgin and in the Office of the Dead. All save the first have been extended into the margin by the use of vertical and horizontal bars:- (a) Ps. 8. Decorated initial 'D'. f. 15;- (b) Ps. 18. Historiated initial showing David playing a psaltery. f. 16;- (c) Ps. 23. Historiated initial showing David playing a medieval fiddle. f. 17;- (d) Ps. 95. Decorated initial 'C'. f. 52b;- (e) Ps. 5. Historiated initial showing David playing a medieval fiddle. f. 91b;- (f) Ps. 22. Decorated initial 'D', including the figure of David standing in water. f. 96;- (g) Ps. 39. Decorated initial 'E', including the figure of David kneeling in prayer. f. 101.

4. Decorated 3 line initials for individual psalms, prayers, etc. In the Hours of the Virgin, the letters are formed of branches and have a scenic background. From f. 63, they are in gold set in small squares with vertical bars attached in the margin decorated with gold foliage and occasionally coloured jewels.

5. Verse initials. In the first gathering of the Hours of the Virgin (ff. 13-22), blue and burnished gold capitals. From f. 23, flat gold on small coloured squares which are often edged with gold.

6. Rubrical decorations in gold, but from the end of the Hours of the Virgin (f. 61), they have not been filled in. Versicles, responds and antiphons in blue.

7. Calendar decoration, which occurs on the recto of each folio in the calendar. At the top is a medallion showing the sign of the zodiac for the month in gold on a plain blue ground. For the first seven months, figures riding in gilded chariots appear in the right margin, personifying the sun, moon and five planets. At the bottom is a medallion showing the labour of the month. The borders of these medallions are inscribed with cabalistic letters or Latin tags. Their subjects are:- (a) January. A youth drinking from a jug and sitting by a fire on which meat is roasting;- (b) February. A man lopping vines or cutting faggots;- (c) March. A youth in a wood blowing a horn;- (d) April. A youth holding flowers;- (e) May. A youth hawking;- (f) June. A man reaping;- (g) July. A man threshing;- (h) August. A youth making wine casks;- (i) September. A man cutting grapes;- (j) October. A man sowing;- (k) November. A man feeding pigs;- (l) December. A man slaughtering pigs.

The extensive use of classical motifs in the decoration, such as standards with flaming cressets, and the architectural settings of some of the full-page miniatures are characteristic of Venetian-Paduan illumination of the second half of the 15th cent. This does not, however, mean that the manuscript can be firmly localised to Venice or Padua, since their influence had spread by the end of the 15th cent. to many other centres of illumination, and features similar to those found in the present manuscript occur in late 15th cent. manuscripts from, for example, Naples, Florence, and Milan: see J. J. G. Alexander and A. C. de la Mare, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J. R. Abbey, 1969, pp. xxxvii-xl. The full-page miniatures, lage historiated and decorated initials and calendar decoration are all by the same artist. Warner, op. cit., i, p. 211, states that the decorated 3-line initials in the Hours of the Virgin are by a different hand to those after f. 63. This seems unlikely. There are similarities in the treatment of foliage in the larger decorated initials and in the 3-line initials after f. 63, which suggests that they are all by the same artist. The backgrounds of the 3 line initials in the Hours of the Virgin are apparently by the same hand as the larger historiated initials and full-page miniatures. This suggests that all the decorated 3 line initials are by the hand responsible for the major decoration, and that the decoration of the manuscript was the work of a single artist. A clue to his identity may be the plate bearing the letters 'RI' in the margin of f. 63. The manuscript was executed between Galeotto I's marriage to Bianca Maria d'Este in 1468 and her death in 1506. On the basis of the Franciscan elements in the calendar and litany, Warner (op. cit., i, p. 211) suggested that the manuscript may have been executed for Bianca after she entered the nunnery of St Louis of the Order of St Clare following her husband's death in 1499. Bianca's attachment to the Franciscans, however, would probably have dated from some time before she entered the nunnery, so that the Franciscan influence in the calendar and litany does not preclude a date of before 1499 for the manuscript. If the manuscript was executed for Bianca, it is surprising that her arms appear only once and there are no arms of families associated with her. The arms of Galeotto and of the family of Pico della Mirandola are more prominent, which makes it likely that the manuscript was executed in his lifetime. The form of script used in the manuscript did not begin to appear generally before the last ten years of the 15th cent., which suggests that the manuscript was executed in the last decade of Galeotto's life. The style of the miniatures and decoration would be consistent with such a dating.'