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Add MS 35313
- Record Id:
- 040-002088791
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002088787
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001490.0x000144
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 35313
- Title:
- Book of Hours, use of Rome (the 'London Rothschild Hours' or the 'Hours of Joanna I of Castile')
- Scope & Content:
-
Book of Hours, known as the 'London Rothschild Hours' or the 'Hours of Joanna I of Castile'.
ff. 1v-7r: Calendar: the saints in red include, St Rémi (local spelling Remigy) and St Bavon (Bavonis) of Ghent (1 October), Donatian, Bishop of Reims [translated to Bruges] (14 October), and Eligius, bishop of Noyon (1 December).
ff. 8r-9v: Prayer to the Holy Face, 'Salve sancta facies' with a rubric: 'Salutatio beate Veronice'.
ff. 9v-17v: Excerpts from the Gospels.
ff. 17v-32v: Hours of the Cross, rubric: 'Sequitur officium de cruce'.
ff. 32v-39v: Hours of the Holy Spirit, rubric: 'Sequitur hore de sancto spiritu'.
ff. 39v-45v: Mass to the Virgin, rubric: 'Sequitur Missa beate marie virginis'.
ff. 46r-49v: Prayer to the Virgin, 'Obsecro te', rubric: 'Oracio ad virginem mariam'.
ff. 50r:-52v: Prayer to the Virgin, 'O intemerata', rubric: 'Oracio ad virginem mariam'.
ff. 53r-55r: Prayer on the Seven Joys of the Virgin Mary, rubric: 'Septem gaudia marie', incipit: 'Gaude flore virginali'.
ff. 56v-125v: Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome.
ff. 125v-133v: Short Office of the Virgin for Advent.
ff. 133v-148r: Seven Penitential Psalm, rubric: 'Sequitur septem psalmi penitentiales".
ff. 148r-157v: Litany, including the Spanish saints (see Provenance).
ff. 158v-204r: Office of the Dead.
ff. 204v-208r: Prayers in commemoration of the Passion.
ff. 208r-210r: Seven Prayers of St Gregory, rubric: 'xlvi annorum indulgentiam xii annos et xl dies dicen.'
ff. 210v-236r: Suffrages including the Trinity and the following saints: John the Evangelist, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, Michael, Lawrence, Anthony, Nicholas, Sebastian, Adrian, Christopher, George, Stephen, Jerome, Francis, Martin, Bernard, Anna, Mary Magdalene, Catherine, Barbara, Margaret, Elizabeth.
ff. 237r-237v: Prayer to the Virgin [added], rubric: 'Papa Sixtus concessit dicentibus hanc orationem ante ymaginem marie virginis in sole xi milia annorum indulgentiam oracio', incipit: 'Ave sactissima virgo maria'.
Decoration:
12 bas-de-page miniatures of the Labours of the Months, historiated medallions of feast days highlighted in red in the text, in the outer border, and Zodiac signs in the upper margins, in the calendar (ff. 1v-7r). Numerous full-page miniatures in colours and gold with full borders, at the beginning of each major text division. Partial scattered or architectonic borders in colours and gold on each page and full borders on text-pages facing miniatures. Initials in gold on blue or red grounds. Line-fillers in colours and gold.
The subjects of the miniatures are:
In the calendar:
f. 1v: January: A woman preparing food and a man warming his feet at the fire; Aquarius; border medallions: the Circumcision; the Epiphany; St Vincent the Martyr; Conversion of St Paul.
f. 2r: February: Men cutting fruit trees and vines and gathering fire wood; Pisces; border medallions: the Purification of the Virgin; the Presentation in the Temple; St Vedastus and St Amandus; the Chair of St Peter; St Matthew the Apostle.
f. 2v: March: Peasants digging in the garden; Aries; border medallions: the Mass of St Gregory; the Annunciation.
f. 3r: April: A shepherd with his herd; Taurus; border medallions: St George; St Mark.
f. 3v: May: A group of nobles in a boat and two hunters falconing; Gemini; border medallions: St Philip and St James the Lesser; the Invention of the Holy Cross.
f. 4r: June: Peasants shearing sheep; Cancer; border medallions: St Boniface; the Martyrdom of St Barnabas; the Nativity of John the Baptist; St Eligius; St Peter and St Paul.
f. 4v: July: Peasants reaping hay; Leo; border medallions: the Visitation; St Thomas; St Benedict; St Mary Magdalene; St James and St Christopher.
f. 5r: August: Peasants harvesting and making sheaves; Virgo; border medallions: the release of St Peter from prison; the Martyrdom of St Lawrence; the Dormition; the Martyrdom of St Bartholomew; the Beheading of St John the Baptist.
f. 5v: September: Peasants ploughing and sowing; Scorpio; border medallions: St Giles; the Nativity of the Virgin; Heraclius with the Holy Cross; the Martyrdom of St Matthew; St Michael.
f. 6r: October: A sale and a slaughter of oxen; Libra; border medallions: St Remigius and St Bavo; St Denis; St Donatian; St Luke the Evangelist; St Simon and St Jude.
f. 6v: November: Peasants beating flax plants to break down the stem fibres and a woman feeding pigs; in the background, a man threshing wheat with a flail to separate the grains from the husks and a woman using a swingle to scutch flax; Sagittarius; border medallions: All Saints; the soul in the purgatory; St Martin of Tours; St Clement; St Catherine, St Andrew.
f. 7r: December: Peasants slaughtering a pig; Capricorn; border medallions: St Giles of Caen and the consecration of St Nicholas as bishop; St Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate (for the Immaculate Conception); St Nicasius; St Thomas the Apostle; the Nativity of Christ; the Martyrdoms of St Stephen and St John the Baptist; the Massacre of the Innocents and the Martyrdom of Thomas Becket.
f. 8r: Christ as the Salvator Mundi (Prayer to the Holy Face 'Salve sancta facies').
In the Gospel excerpts:
f. 10v: St John the Evangelist on Patmos (excerpt from the Gospel of John).
f. 12v: St Luke painting the Virgin and Child (excerpt from the Gospel of Luke).
f. 14v: St Matthew writing (excerpt from the Gospel of Matthew).
f. 16v: St Mark writing (excerpt from the Gospel of Mark).
In the Hours of the Cross:
f. 18v: Christ's entrance to Jerusalem (Matins).
f. 19r: The Last Supper (Matins).
f. 20v: Soldier falling when trying to arrest Christ (Prime).
f. 21r: The Betrayal and Arrest of Christ (Prime).
f. 22v: Christ before Caiaphas (Terce).
f. 23r: The Mocking of Christ (Terce).
f. 24v: The Flagellation (Sext).
f. 25r: The Crowning with Thorns (Sext).
f. 26v: Christ being shown to the people (None).
f. 27r: Pilate washing his hands (None).
f. 28v: Christ carrying the Cross, with a monk and St Veronica in the margin (Vespers).
f. 29r: The Crucifixion (Vespers).
f. 30v: The Deposition from the Cross (Compline).
f. 31r: The Entombment (Compline).
In the Hours of the Holy Spirit:
f. 33v: The Pentecost.
f. 34r: The building of the tower of Babel.
In the Mass and Prayers to the Virgin:
f. 40r: The Elevation of the Host during a mass (Mass to the Virgin).
f. 46r: Virgin and Child with angels (Prayer 'Obsecro te').
f. 50r: St John and the Virgin mourning over the body of Christ (Prayer 'O intemerata').
f. 54v: The Virgin and Child in the type of the Maria lactans (Antiphon 'Gaude dei genitrix').
In the Hours of the Virgin:
f. 56v: The Annunciation (Matins).
f. 57r: Moses before the Burning Bush (Matins).
f. 76v: The Visitation (Lauds).
f. 77r: Anna receiving Tobias and Sarah (Lauds).
f. 89v: The Nativity (Prime).
f. 90r: The Tiburtine Sibyl prophesying to Augustus about the birth of Christ (Prime).
f. 95v: The Annunciation to the Shepherds (Terce).
f. 96r: The Adoration of the Shepherds (Terce).
f. 101v: The Adoration of the Magi (Sext).
f. 102r: David receiving water from a well in Bethlehem (Sext).
f. 106v: The Presentation in the Temple (None).
f. 107r: The presentation of Samuel in the Temple (None).
f. 111v: The Massacre of the Innocents (Vespers).
f. 112r: Moses casting down the pharaoh’s crown and being tried by ordeal (Vespers).
f. 119v: The Dormition of the Virgin (Compline).
f. 120r: The Coronation of the Virgin (Compline).
f. 126r: Old Testaments prophets awaiting the coming of Christ (Short Office of the Virgin for Advent).
In the Seven Penitential Psalms:
f. 134v: The Last Judgement.
f. 135r: David in prayer.
In the Office of the Dead:
f. 158v: The Three Living and the Three Dead.
f. 159r: A funeral procession.
f. 205r: Christ as the Man of Sorrows (Prayers in commemoration of the Passion).
f. 207v: The mass of St Gregory (The Seven Prayers of St Gregory).
In the Suffrages of Saints:
f. 210v: The Trinity.
f. 211v: St John the Evangelist.
f. 212v: St John the Baptist.
f. 213v: St Peter and Paul.
f. 214v: St Andrew.
f. 215v: St James.
f. 216v: St Michael.
f. 217v: St Lawrence.
f. 218v: St Nicholas.
f. 219v: St Anthony.
f. 220v: St Sebastian.
f. 221v: St Adrian the Martyr.
f. 222v: St Christopher.
f. 223v: St George.
f. 224v: St Stephen.
f. 225v: St Jerome.
f. 226v: St Francis.
f. 227v: St Martin of Tours.
f. 228v: St Bernard of Clairvaux.
f. 229v: All Saints.
f. 230v: St. Anna with the Virgin and Child.
f. 231v: St Mary Magdalene.
f. 232v: St Catherine of Alexandria.
f. 233v: St Barbara.
f. 234v: St Margaret.
f. 235v: St Elizabeth of Hungary.
f. 237r: Pope Sixtus IV praying in front of an image of the Virgin (Prayer 'Ave sactissima virgo maria').
The miniatures in the Hours of the Cross and the Hours of the Virgin and perhaps the Calendar scenes are attributed to the Master of James IV of Scotland and his workshop; the miniatures in the Suffrages and prayers are attributed to the workshop of the Maximilian Master, both active at Ghent (see Kren and McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance, 2003).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002088787
040-002088791 - Is part of:
- Add MS 35310-35324 : Rothschild Bequest
Add MS 35313 : Book of Hours, use of Rome (the 'London Rothschild Hours' or the 'Hours of Joanna I of Castile') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002088787[0004]/040-002088791
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 35310-35324
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_35313 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1495
- End Date:
- 1505
- Date Range:
- c 1500
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
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Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 235 x 165 mm (text space: 105 x 105 mm).
Foliation: ff. 237 (+ 7 unfoliated flyleaves: 2 modern paper and 1 parchment leaf at the beginning and 2 modern and 2 parchment leaves at the end).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown calf binding with gold tooling, probably 18th century.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Southern Netherlands (Ghent?).
Provenance:
Made for a woman and a member of the Spanish court or royal family, perhaps Joanna I (b. 1479, d. 1555), Queen of Castile and Aragon [Joanna the Mad], who married Philip I the Handsome (d. 1506), son of Mary of Burgundy: includes an unusual miniature (the Office of the Dead) copied from the Berlin Hours of Mary of Burgundy (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett MS 78 B 12, f. 220v) featuring Mary as one of the Three Living encountering the Three Dead (f. 158v); perhaps commissioned by Margaret of Austria (b. 1480, d. 1530), Princess of Asturias and Duchess of Savoy, who later owned the Berlin Hours; the manuscript includes several references to St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist (Joanna's namesakes) in the Calendar (ff. 4r, 5r, 7r), Litany (f. 148v) and Suffrages (ff. 211v, 212v); the Litany also includes Spanish saints: the martyrs Emeterius and Celedonius (f. 150r), the confessors St Ildephonsus of Toledo, St Isidore of Seville and St Adelelmus (f. 150r) who replaced the Mozarabic rite in Léon and Castile with the Roman liturgy, and the virgin sisters St Marina and St Quiteria of Bayona (Pontevedra).
Lozenges with unidentified arms argent a chevron azure (f. 159r).
Ferdinand James Anselm de Rothschild (b. 1839, d. 1898), Baron de Rothschild in the nobility of the Austrian empire art collector and politician: bequeathed by him to the British Museum (1898).
- Source of Acquisition:
- Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild
- Administrative Context:
- Southern Netherlands (Ghent?).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of the Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1894-1899 (London: British Museum, 1901), pp. 253-54.
Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1983), no. 8.
Janet Backhouse, Books of Hours (London: British Library, 1985), figs 15-16.
The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come, ed. by Frances Carey (London: British Museum, 1999), pp. 97-08, no. 25.
Maurits Smeyers, Flemish Miniatures from the 8th to the mid-16th Century (Leuven: Brepols, 1999), pl. 5 on p. 421, pl. 29 on p. 441.
F. O. Büttner, ‘Ce sera moy: Realitätsgehalt und Rhetoric in Darstellungen der Toten- und Vergänglichkeitsikonographie des Studengebetbuchs, 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), pp. 243-315 (pl. 17).
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London, 2003), pls.113-14.
Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), no. 109 [with additional bibliography].
The Book of Hours of Joanna I of Castile (Barcelona: Moleiro 2005) [facsimile].
Carlos Miranda García-Tejedor, The Book of Hours of Joanna I of Castile (Barcelona: Moleiro 2005) [facsimile commentary].
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), pp. 164-66.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)