Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Yates Thompson MS 7

Record Id:

040-002354392

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002354332

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000772.0x0001ca

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Yates Thompson MS 7

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Hours of Dionora of Urbino')

Scope & Content:

Book of Hours, Use of Rome. Known as the 'Hours of Dionora of Urbino', after its owner Eleanor (Dionora) Gonzaga della Rovere (b. 1493, d. 1550), wife of Francesco Maria I della Rovere, (b. 1490, d. 1538), Duke of Urbino .

ff. 46, 51v, 104, 109v are 18th-century English replacements of missing leaves.

ff. 1r, 13v, 13*r-v, 217v are blank.

Decoration:

Attributed to Matteo da Milano (ff. 14r [with borders of this double-leaf ff. 14/23], 45v, 56v, 64r, 68r, 86r, 93v, 96r, 138v, 147v, 150v, 174r, 205r).

According to Alexander, 'Italian Illuminated Manuscripts' (1992) and Lollini, 'Appunti su Matteo da Milano' (1992), some borders and initials are in Matteo's style but by a weaker hand (e.g. ff. 51v, 109v). There are no more historiated initials in this style, and the few borders in the same style can be found only on the double-leaves ff. 46/51 and 104/109; as the parchment and the script are also different, the two double-leaves are later replacements, probably of the 18th century, imitating the style of Matteo da Milano (see also Bennett 1967 on the Yates Thompson sale in 1920 who says that the manuscript was returned because some of the pages were judged as 'modern fakes' not mentioned in the sale catalogue).There is another double-leaf, ff. 64/71, which was replaced. As the style of the historiated initial is without any doubt by Matteo da Milano the double-leaf must have been replaced by his campaign. Perhaps the parchment was damaged when they tried to erase the border decoration of the first campaign; maybe, the two other later replaced double-leaves were lost at the same moment, but forgotten to be replaced.

According to Lollini, some of the historiated initials are by another hand close to Boccaccino (e.g. ff. 105v [sic, David = 150v], 165r). However, the initial with David seems to be by Matteo da Milano himself. There are some historiated initials by a hand related to Matteo da Milano (ff. 48v, 99r, 113r, 131r, 144v, 150v, 165r, 169r).

24 large and smaller historiated initials, accompanied by partial borders, the first one by a full border, with white vine ornament, foliate decoration, and all'antica elements, including putti, gemstones and candelabrae, in colours and gold, for major text divisions (ff. 14r, 45v, 48v, 51v, 56v, 64r, 68r, 86r, 93v, 96r, 99r, 101v [decorated], 109v, 113r, 131r, 138v, 141v [decorated], 144v, 147v, 150v, 165r, 169r, 174r, 205r).

Large decorated initials, accompanied by full foliate borders, in colours and gold, for Lauds, Prime and Terce in the Hours of the Virgin (ff. 31v, 39v, 42v).

Numerous smaller initials mostly in gold on coloured grounds, some decorated, 5 with the symbols of the Passion of Christ (ff. 170v, 171r, 172r, 172v, 173r), accompanied by partial foliate borders, in colours and gold.

12 KL initials, red, blue or gold with flowers on a gold and colours background (ff. 1v-12v).

Small initials in gold on red or blue grounds.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Yates Thompson Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002354332
040-002354392

Is part of:

Yates Thompson MS 1-59 : Yates Thompson Manuscripts

Yates Thompson MS 7 : Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Hours of Dionora of Urbino')

Hierarchy:

032-002354332[0008]/040-002354392

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Yates Thompson MS 1-59

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1505

End Date:

1515

Date Range:

c 1510-1515

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 207 x 140 mm (text space: 130 x 83 mm).

Foliation: ff. 219 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning, and 3 at the end).

Collation: i¹⁴ (ff. 1-13*), ii-vi¹⁰(ff. 14-63), vii⁸ (ff. 64-71), viii-xxi¹⁰ (ff. 72-211), xxii⁸ (ff. 212-219).

Script: Humanistic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. Red velvet; gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Florence or Mantua, Italy.

The manuscript was written by the scribe Matteo Contugi de Volterra (Mattheus Herchulani de Vulterris), made for Eleanor (Dionora) Gonzaga della Rovere (b. 1493, d. 1550): his name inscribed, 'Manu Matthei Domini Herchulani de Vulterris' (f. 217r).

According to Cockerell's handwritten annotations in the Manuscript Department's copy of Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1898), no. 25 pp. 119-23, seven manuscripts in the Vatican (Codices Urb. 10, 324, 336, 365, 392, 427, 548) are written by the same scribe.

Provenance:

Eleanor (Dionora) Gonzaga della Rovere (b. 1493, d. 1550), wife of Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (b. 1490, d. 1538; married 1509): her name inscribed 'Diva Dio(nora) Duci(ssa) Ur(bini)', with arms of Della Rova impaling Gonzaga (f. 14r); further inscriptions (ff. 42v, 68r, 86r, 138v, 165r); the Gonzaga arms (ff. 45v, 96r, 141v, 205r); some prayers changed from masculine to feminine form (see ff. 210r, 212r).

Andrew Fountaine (b. 1770, d. 1835) of Norford Hall, Norfolk: inscribed 'There are 216 written leaves in this Missal. A. Fountaine 1794' (f. 219r).

Inscribed in red ink 'No. 5' (f. 1v) probably related to Fountaine collection, long bibliographical note in pencil signed 'A.F.' (f. 1* verso); another by the bookseller James Edwards, dated Norford, 14 September 1799 (f. 2*r-v).

Andrew Fountaine (b. 1808, d. 1874) (see Waagen 1854): his sale of the Fountaine collection from Norford Hall, Christie's, 6 July 1894, lot 139, bought by Henry Yates Thompson.

Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed '[MS] 25 / £ane.e.e [i.e. £450.0.0] / [bought from] Christies / (Stuart sale) (sic) / July 6th / 1894' (inside upper cover); in his sale, 23 March 1920, lot 64 [note in dept. cat. says the manuscript was sold to Quaritch for £2700]; according to Bennett 1967 this manuscript had been bought by Dring of Quaritch's for Chester Beatty, and was returned shortly with 'a stinging note describing some of the pages as 'modern fakes', not mentioned in the sale catalogue'.

Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1941 by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson.

Publications:

Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols (London: Murray, 1854), III, 431-32.

Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1898), no. 25 pp. 119-23.

Seymour de Ricci, Les Manuscrits de la Collection Henry Yates Thompson, Extrait du Bulletin de la Socie´te´ Franc¸aise de Reproductions de Manuscrits a` Peintures (Paris: [n. pub.], 1926), no. 25 p. 15.

[Derek Howard Turner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series V: Fifty Plates (London: British Museum, 1965), no. XLVIII pp. 24-25, pl. XLVIII.

Josiah Q. Bennett, 'Portman Square to New Bond Street, or, How to Make Money though Rich', The Book Collector (1967), 323-39 (p. 331, 333-34).

Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library, ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1983), p. 128, fig. 16e.

Albinia de la Mare, 'New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence', in Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento, 1440-1525: un primo censimento, ed. by Annarosa Garzelli, 2 vols, ([Florence]: Giunta regionale toscana, 1985), I, pp. 395-574 (p. 450 n. 224).

Jonathan J. G. Alexander, 'Italian Illuminated Manuscripts in British Collections', in La miniatura Italiana tra Gotico e Rinascimento, 2 vols, ed. by Emanuela Sesti, Storia della Miniatura: Studi e Documenti, 6 (Florence: Olschki, 1985), I, 99-126 (112-13, fig. 10). Reprinted as 'Italian Illuminated Manuscripts from the Fourteen to the Sixteenth Centuries in British Collections' in Alexander, Studies in Italian Manuscript Illumination (London: Pindar Press, 2002), pp. 22-54 (pp. 34, 48).

Jonathan J. G. Alexander, 'Matteo da Milano, Illuminator', Pantheon, 50 (1992), 32-45 (pp. 40-41, figs. 25, 29). Reprinted in Alexander, Studies in Italian Manuscript Illumination (London: Pindar Press, 2002), pp. 281-334 (pp. 294, 319, 323, 326, 331).

Fabrizio Lollini, 'Appunti su Matteo da Milano', Studi umanistici Piceni, 12 (1992), 143-54 (pp. 145, 146, fig. 6).

Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (London: British Library, 1997), no. 199.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Subjects:

Book of Hours

Places:

Florence, Italy
Mantua, Italy