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Yates Thompson MS 3
- Record Id:
- 040-002354336
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002354332
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000772.0x0001a1
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165175372.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Yates Thompson MS 3
- Title:
- Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Dunois Hours')
- Scope & Content:
-
Book of Hours, use of Rome, known as the 'The Dunois Hours', including:
ff. 1r-12r: Calendar, use of Paris.
ff. 13r-22r: Excerpts from the Four Gospels.
ff. 22v-32r: Two prayers to the Virgin, 'Obsecro te' (ff. 22v-27r) and 'O intemerata' (ff. 27r-32r).
ff. 32v-35r: Prayer 'Deus propicius.'
ff. 35r-36v: Prayer to the Virgin, incipit: 'Saluto te beatissima dei genitrix.'
ff. 37r-119v: Hours of the Virgin.
ff. 120r-152r: Hours of the Passion.
ff. 152v-156r: Passion according to John, incipit: 'In illo tempore apprehendit', with a prayer, incipit: 'Deus qui voluisti' (ff. 155r-156r).
ff. 157r-176r: Seven Penitential Psalms.
ff. 176v-183v: Litany.
ff. 184r-193r: Hours of the Cross.
ff. 193v-201r: Hours of the Holy Spirit.
ff. 201v-220r: Office of the Dead, rubric: 'Sequitur vespere mortuorum ad usum romanorum'.
ff. 221v-258v: Hours of the Dead.
ff. 259r-291r: Suffrages.
Decoration:
12 small miniatures in colours and gold of the labours of the months in the lower border, and 12 small scenes with the Zodiac signs in the outer margins, at the beginning of each month in the calendar (ff. 1r-12r). 60 full-page miniatures in colours and gold, accompanied by large decorated initials and full foliate borders, partly including related scenes (ff. 13r, 15v, 18r, 20v, 22v, 27v, 32v [full historiated border], 37r [border with several related roundels], 66v, 81v [related scene in the border], 87v [related scene in the border], 93v, 99r, 104v [related scene in the border], 114r, 120r [2 small related miniatures in the borders], 130r, 133v, 136v, 139v, 142v [related scene in the border], 145v, 148v, 152v [related scene in the border], 157r [related scene in the border], 159r, 162r, 165v, 168v, 172v, 174r, 184r [related scene in the border], 193v, 201v [related scene in the border], 211r [related scene in the border], 259r, 260r, 261r, 262r, 263v, 264v, 265v, 267v, 269v [related scene in the border], 270v, 271v, 272v [related scene in the border], 273v, 274v [related scene in the border], 275v, 278r, 280r, 281v, 282v, 283v, 284v, 286r, 287r, 288r, 289v). All text pages with three-sided foliate borders.
Smaller decorated initials in colours and gold with foliate extensions into the margins.
Small initials in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Line-fillers decorated in gold and blue or in red and blue.
This is the eponymous manuscript of the Dunois Master (known as the principal associate of the Bedford Master). 1 miniature (f. 289v) is in the style of the Master of the Salisbury Breviary St Stephen named after the Invention of St Stephen in the Salisbury Breviary (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS. lat.17294, f. 529v).
The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 1r: January: Jean Comte de Dunois feasting; Aquarius.
f. 2r: February: Three men burning and gathering firewood; Pisces.
f. 3r: March: Three men pruning and setting stocks in a vineyard; Aries.
f. 4r: April: Three ladies and a gentleman gathering flowers in a field; Taurus.
f. 5r: May: Two ladies and a gentleman on horseback; Gemini.
f. 6r: June: A man mowing a field with a scythe, and two women raking; Cancer.
f. 7r: July: Men binding sheaves in a field, and another man reaping; Leo.
f. 8r: August: Two men threshing wheat and another man winnowing; Virgo.
f. 9r: September: Two men making wine; Libra.
f. 10r: October: A man on a horse pulling a harrow, and another man sowing seed; Scorpio.
f. 11r: November: Two men beating oaks to feed their hogs on the acorns; Sagittarius.
f. 12r: December: Two men boar hunting; Capricorn.
f. 13r: St John writing on the island of Patmos, with his symbol, the eagle, nearby (Excerpt from John).
f. 15v: St Luke sharpening his quill with his symbol, the winged ox, by his side (Excerpt from Luke).
f. 18r: St Matthew writing at a desk, with his symbol, the angel, holding his ink pot (excerpt from Matthew).
f. 20v: St Mark seated at a desk and writing the words 'In illo tempore' on a parchment, with his symbol, a winged lion, sitting before him.
f. 22v: Virgin and Child with a kneeling Jean Comte de Dunois in armour ('Obsecro te').
f. 27v: Virgin and Child with angels ('O intemerata').
f. 32v: The Last Judgement, with St John the Evangelist and Jean de Dunois in the margin ('Deus propicius').
In the Hours of the Virgin:
f. 37r: The Annunciation, with the arms of Jean Comte de Dunois and seven scenes from the life of the Virgin in the border: (anti-clockwise from upper left): 1. Joachim's offering refused in the Temple; 2. The Annunciation to Joachim; 3. The Annunciation to Anne; 4. The meeting at the Golden Gate; 5. The birth of the Virgin; 6. The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple; 7. The Betrothal of the Virgin to Joseph (Matins).
f. 66v: The Visitation (Lauds).
f. 81v: The Nativity of Christ, with two shepherds in the border (Prime).
f. 87v: The Annunciation to the Shepherds, with two shepherds in the border (Terce).
f. 93v: The Adoration of the Magi (Sext).
f. 99r: The Presentation in the Temple (None).
f. 104v: The Flight into Egypt, with the Massacre of the Innocents (Vespers).
f. 114r: The Coronation of the Virgin (Compline).
In the Hours of the Passion:
f. 120r: The Betrayal of Christ with the Agony in the Garden, and the Arrest of Christ, in the border (Matins).
f. 130r: Christ before Pilate (Lauds).
f. 133v: The Flagellation of Christ (Prime).
f. 136v: Christ carrying the cross (Terce).
f. 139v: Christ being nailed to the cross (Sext).
f. 142v: The Crucifixion of Christ, with two dead rising from their graves in the border (None).
f. 145v: The Deposition of Christ (Vespers).
f. 148v: The Entombment of Christ (Compline).
f. 152v: The Christ as Man of Sorrow supported by the Trinity, with John the Evangelist and the Virgin, with St Gregory celebrating mass (the Passion according to John).
In the Seven Penitential Psalms:
f. 157r: David in prayer (Psalm 6)
f. 159r: A personification of Pride (Orgueil): a man with a sword riding a lion, and a personification of Envy (Envie): a woman with a sword, riding a wolf (Psalm 31).
f. 162r: A personification of Idleness (Peresse): a man riding on a donkey (Psalm 37).
f. 165v: A personification of Anger (Ire): a man riding a leopard and stabbing himself with a sword (Psalm 50).
f. 168v: A personification of Gluttony (Gloutenie): a man riding a wolf, carrying a sword and a chalice and followed by a servant with flagons of wine (Psalm 101).
f. 172v: A personification of Lust (Luxure): a woman riding a white goat, carrying arrows and a mirror; behind, David watching Bathsheba in her bath (Psalm 129).
f. 174r: A personification of Avarice (Averricea): man riding an ape, carrying a chest full of coins, with scales and money on a table behind him (Psalm 142).
f. 184r: The Adoration of the True Cross by the representatives of different communions of Christianity, with St Helena finding the Cross, in the border (Hours of the Cross).
f. 193v: The Pentecost (Hours of the Holy Spirit).
f. 201v: Angels and a demon disputing over a soul: a corpse lying in an open grave, with a scroll reading 'Circumdederunt me dolores mortis et pericula inferni invenerunt me. Sperantem in domino misericordia circumdabit'; on the right, a demon emerging from the earth and snatching at the soul rising from the corpse, with a scroll reading 'Lubricus fuit'; two angels above with scrolls reading 'Penituit et elemosinam dedit,' and 'Sinite illam: iustum et impium iudicabit dominus'; a funeral ceremony, in the border (Office of the Dead).
f. 211r: The Office of the Dead, with a priest administering the sacrament of extreme unction, in the border (Hours of the Dead).
In the Suffrages:
f. 259r: St Peter.
f. 260r: St Paul.
f. 261r: St Andrew.
f. 262r: St James.
f. 263v: St John the Evangelist.
f. 264v: St Thomas Apostle.
f. 265v: St Anthony.
f. 267v: St Christopher.
f. 269v: St Leonard.
f. 270v: St Martin.
f. 271v: St Nicholas.
f. 272v: St Eustace.
f. 273v: St Laurence.
f. 274v: St George.
f. 275v: St Bernard.
f. 278r: St Julian.
f. 280r: St Mary Magdalene.
f. 281v: St Katherine of Alexandria.
f. 282v: St Margaret.
f. 283v: St Genevieve.
f. 284v: St Apollonia.
f. 286r: St Elizabeth.
f. 287r: St Mary of Egypt.
f. 288r: St Francis receiving the stigmata.
f. 289v: St Barbara.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Yates Thompson Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002354332
040-002354336 - Is part of:
- Yates Thompson MS 1-59 : Yates Thompson Manuscripts
Yates Thompson MS 3 : Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Dunois Hours') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002354332[0003]/040-002354336
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Yates Thompson MS 1-59
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165175372.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1434
- End Date:
- 1455
- Date Range:
- c 1439-c 1450
- 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: 135 x 95 mm (text space: 70 x 45 mm).
Foliation: ff. 291 (+ 4 unfoliated parchment flyleaves: 2 at the beginning, and 2 at the end).
Collation: i-ii6 (ff. 1-12), iii-xxxiii8 (ff. 13-260), xxxiv6-1 (1 leaf excised; ff. 261-265), xxxv8-1 (1 leaf excised; ff. 266-272), xxxxvi8-1 (7th leaf excised after f. 278; ff. 273-279), xxxvii8 (ff. 280-287), xxxviii4 (ff. 288-291).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Pre-1600. Gold-tooled red leather binding, in the style of Le Gascon; gilt edges. Letters 'D.I.' and 'F.G.' stamped on binding may possibly stand for 'Dunois, Jean', and 'Fauvel, G.' (handwritten annotation in James 1898).
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Paris, France.
Provenance:
Jean (b. 1403, d. 1471), Count of Dunois (from 1439), Bastard of Orléans: his arms (ff. 1r, 13r, 13v, 22v, 32v, 37r, 93r, 93v, 120r, 121r, 121v, 130r, 138, 138v, 157r, 157v, 172r, 172v, 193v, 281v), and 'portrait' (ff. 1r, 22v, 32v); probably commissioned by him in Paris after its capture by the forces of Charles VII in 1436 (James 1898 p. 51).
? Louis XII (b. 1462, d. 1515), Duke of Orléans (from 1465), King of France (1498-1515), and Jean's nephew: inscribed in a 16th-century hand 'Heures de Louis XII. Lors'quil etoit Duc D'Orleans' (f. [293] v).
Henri Antoine Auguste Fauvel [Abbé Fauvel], chapelain to Louis XIV (1643-1715) and Louis XV (1715-1774), Kings of France, collector: his book-plate, 'E. Bibliotheca D. D. Abbatis Fauvel', inscribed 'No. 112' (inside upper cover), 1st half of the 18th century.
Louis Jean Gaignat (b. c. 1697, d. 1768), French collector: included in his sale catalogue as 'Autres Heures anciennes. Manuscrit sur vélin, en lettres gothiques, avec de jolies miniatures, in-12. Maroquin rouge doré à compartimens. Ces Heures passent pour avoir été faites pour Louis XII lorsuďil étoit encore duc d'Orléans' (Catalogue des Livres du cabinet de feu M. Louis-Jean Gaignat (Paris: Guillaume Francois de Bure, le jeune, 1769), I, p. 57, lot 197; sold for 30 francs.
Mr Musgrave, acquired from him by Henry Yates Thompson through Ellis & Elvey: 'The volume was sold to me (through Messrs Ellis and Elvey) by a Mr Musgrave, who says it has been in his family for several generations, having been brought to England from Paris about the end of the last century' (Yates Thompson, cited in James 1898 p. 51); sold by Ellis & Elvey in April 1894, lot 94; included in the Spring Catalogue of Choice Books and Manuscripts (London: Ellis and Elvey, 1900), p. 77, lot 94, art. 517 (see Delisle 1900).
Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: his book-plate inscribed '[MS]11 / £tre [i.e. £720] / [bought from] Ellis & Elvey / April 7th / 1894' (f. [I]r) ); given to his wife on her birthday, 7 January 1917: inscribed 'This book was given to my dear wife on her birthday Jan. 7th 1917 as a companion to the Hours of a Scottish Princeps. I am proud to think that she is now the owner of two of the most precious prayer books in the world. With all my heart H.Y.T.' (f. [I]r).
Bequeathed to the British Museum by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson in 1941.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
Some Account of an Illuminated Manuscript of the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Executed for Jean, Comte de Dunois, about A. D. 1450, and Enriched with Seventy-two Miniatures (London: Privately printed for Ellis & Elvey, 1894).
Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1898), no. 11, pp. 49-57.
Léopold Delisle, ‘Les Heures de l'amiral Prigent de Coëtivy’, Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes, 61 (1900), 186-200 (pp. 196-97).
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 276.
F. Wormald, 'The Yates Thompson Manuscripts', The British Museum Quarterly, 16 (1952), 4-6 (p. 5).
Eleanor P. Spencer, 'L'Horloge de Sapience: Bruxelles, Bibliothèque Royale Ms. IV. 111', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits, 17 (1963), 277-99 (p. 295 n. 44).
[D. H. Turner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 5 (London: British Museum, 1965), pl. 37.
Liège et Bourgogne (Liège: Musée de l'Art Wallon, 1968), no. 206, pp. 188-89.
Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries, 2 vols (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974), I, pp. 222, 472 n. 692, II, pl. 725.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, 168 [rejected].
Janet Backhouse, Books of Hours (London: British Library, 1985), pp. 5, fig. 3.
Charles Sterling, La peinture médiévale à Paris 1300-1500, 2 vols (Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts, 1987), I, pp. 446, 460.
Peter Rolfe Monks, 'Two Parisian artists of the Dunois Hours and a Flemish motif', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 112 (1988), 61-68.
Christopher de Hamel, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, 2nd edn (London: Phaidon, 1994), p. 194.
James H. Marrow, The Hours of Simon de Varie (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994), pp. 28, 34, 42, figs. 9, 12, 17.
Peter Rolfe Monks, 'Some Doubtful Attributions to the Master of Jean Rolin II', in Medieval Codicology, Iconography, Literature, and Translation: Studies for Keith Val Sinclair, ed. by Peter Rolfe Monks and D. D. R. Owen, (Leiden: Brill, 1994), pp. 143-56 (pp. 147-48, fig. 53).
François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520 (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), pp. 23, 36, 37.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), no. 153, p. 174.
Peter Rolfe Monks, 'An Unusual Epitome of a Stylistic Labyrinth', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits, 52 (1998), 3-11 (p. 5 n. 8).
Janet Backhouse, Illumination from Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 123.
The Splendor of the Word: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts at the New York Public Library, ed. by Jonathan J. G. Alexander, James H. Marrow, and Lucy Freeman Sandler (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), p. 249 n. 5 [exhibition catalogue].
Greg Buzwell, Saints in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2005), p. 12, p. 20, p. 24.
Catherine Reynolds, ‘The Workshop of the Master of the Duke of Bedford: Definitions and Identities’, in Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400, ed. by G. Croenen and P. Ainsworth (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), pp. 437-72 (p. 451 n. 30).
Catherine Reynolds, 'Netherlandish Patterns in Fifteenth-Century Paris - Campin, van der Weyden and the Bedford Workshop', in Von Kunst und Temperament, Festschrift zu Ehren Eberhard Königs 60. Geburtstag, ed. by Mara Hofmann and Caroline Zöhl (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), 217-26 (p. 224).
- Exhibitions:
- The Middle Ages, (online), 26 March 2015-
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)