Walters Ms. W.181, Book of Hours

W.181

Book of Hours

This Book of Hours was illuminated between 1460 and 1470 under the influence of Willem Vrelant in Bruges. The manuscript contains seven extant inserted full-page miniatures (eight others are now missing), and their accompanying foliate borders teem with charming grotesques, many of which are holding and reading books.

Ca. 1460-1470 CE

Bruges

Book

Devotional

The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.

Parchment

Well-selected and prepared light-weight parchment, with heavier parchment for inserted miniatures

Foliation: 159+i

Formula: Quires 1-2: 6 (fols. 1-12); Quire 3: 8, with first and eighth folios added (fols. 13-22); Quire 4: 8, with ninth folio added (fols. 23-31); Quire 5: 4, with second folio removed and fifth folios added, second folio later removed (fols. 32-34); Quires 6-7: 8 (fols. 35-50); Quire 8: 8, with first folio added and later removed (fols. 51-58); Quire 9: 8, with third and eighth folios added (fols. 59-68); Quire 10: 8, with third and eighth folios added, third folio later removed (fols. 69-77); Quire 11: 8, with third folio added and later removed (fols. 78-85); Quire 12: 8, with second folio added and later removed (fols. 86-93); Quire 13: 9 (fols. 94-101); Quire 14: 8, first folio added and later removed (fols. 102-109); Quire 15: 8 (fols. 110-117); Quire 16: 8, with third folio added (fols. 118-126); Quires 117-120: 8 (fols. 127-157); Quire 21: 2 (fols. 158-159)

Comments:

6.7 cm wide by 9.4 cm high

fols. 1r - 159v: 2.8 cm wide by 4.8 cm high

fols. 1r - 12v: 3.0 cm wide by 4.8 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 17-18
3. On some pages the text begins above the first ruled line and others below.

1. Columns: 3
2. Ruled lines: 18

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Hand note: Calendar and text both in Italianate gotica rotunda, punctus and punctus elevatus marks for pauses
3. Decoration note: Seven full-page miniatures on versos of inserted folios; decorated illuminated initials, flourished initials, foliate borders inhabited with grotesques surrounding the miniatures; rubrics in red; text in brown ink

1. Title: Calendar
2. Rubric: Januarius xxxi.
3. Contents: Calendar one quarter to half-full; graded in red and dark brown; for Use of Rome with some Flemish and northern French saints; saints of note include Bavo (Jan. 14), Maurus (Jan. 16), Anthony (Jan. 18, normally on the 17th), Prisca (Jan. 19), Vincent (Jan. 23), Conversion of St. Paul (Jan. 26), Albinus (Mar. 1), Ouintianus (Apr. 1), Anne (Oct. 27), Lambert (Nov. 17) Remigius (Dec. 1), Francis (Dec. 4), and Sixtus (Dec. 7)

1. Title: Hours of the Cross
2. Rubric: Incipit officium sancte crucis. Ad matutinas versus.
3. Incipit: Domine labia mea
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature, fol. 13v

1. Title: Hours of the Holy Spirit
2. Rubric: Incipit officium de sancto spiritu. Ad matutinas. versus
3. Incipit: Domine labia mea
4. Contents: Final "Amen" enlarged and centered several lines below end of text
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature, fol. 20v

1. Title: Mass of the Virgin
2. Rubric: Incipit missa beate marie virginis. Introit.
3. Incipit: Salve sancta parens enixa puerpera
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature, fol. 26v

1. Title: Suffrage to the Holy Face
2. Rubric: De sancta veronica. Oratio.
3. Incipit: Salve sancta facies nostri redemptoris

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Rubric: Incipit officium beate marie virginis secundum consuetudinem Romane curie. V.
3. Incipit: Domine labia mea
4. Contents: Use of Rome
5. Decoration note: Three full-page miniatures, fols. 61v, 66v, and 75v; five missing miniatures originally opposite fols. 35, 51, 71, 80, and 87

1. Title: Advent Office of the Virgin
2. Rubric: Incipit officium beate marie virginis quod dicitur in adventu
3. Incipit: Deus in adiuitorum meum
4. Contents: Additional heading appears on bottom of fol. 91v reading "Sequitur adventus domini"

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms
2. Rubric: Incipit .vii psalmi penitenciales. p.
3. Incipit: Domine ne in furore tuo

1. Title: Litany, petitions, and collects
2. Rubric: Litanie maior
3. Incipit: Kyrieleyson
4. Contents: Fols. 112r-114v: Litany: Use of Rome, some regional saints; includes sixteen apostles from Peter to Mark; fifteen martyrs, twelve doctors and confessors, including Francis, Leonard, and Bernard; fifteen virgins, widows, and continentes including Clare, Ursula, Elizabeth, and Martha; fols. 114v-117r: Petitions, invocations, and Psalm 69; fols. 117r-119r: Nine collects

1. Title: Office of the Dead
2. Rubric: Incipiunt vigilie mortuorum Ad vesperas antiphona
3. Incipit: Placebo: Dilexi quoniam exaudiet
4. Contents: For Use of Rome; four collects at the end of Vespers, two of which cite "N" for name of deceased male or female, fol. 126r-v; fols. 127-134 and 134-141 were reversed during rebinding
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature, fol. 120v

fol. 13v:

1. 
2. Title: Crucifixion with SS. Mary Magdalene and Longinus
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Cross

fol. 20v:

1. 
2. Title: Pentecost
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit

fol. 26v:

1. 
2. Title: Virgin and Child
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Mass of the Virgin

fol. 61v:

1. 
2. Title: Nativity-Adoration
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Prime

fol. 66v:

1. 
2. Title: Annunciation to the Shepherds
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Terce

fol. 75v:

1. 
2. Title: Circumcision
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: None

fol. 120v:

1. 
2. Title: Funeral service
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Office of the Dead

The binding is not original.

Rebound in French or Belgium (?) ca. 1900; dark red velvet; two silver gilt catches and clasps from the seventeenth century, possibly transferred from previous binding

Bruges, ca. 1460-1470, completed under influence of Willem Vrelant

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from unknown source between 1895 and 1931

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

De Ricci, Seymour, and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 813, cat. no. 346.

Bowles, Edmund A. "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery." Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 32, no. 4 (1976): 719-726; pp. 722, 724, 725.

Owens, M.B. "Musical Subjects in the Illumination of Books of Hours from Fifteenth-Century France and Flanders." Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1987; p. 392.

Bousmanne, Bernard. "Prolégomènes à la constitution et à l'interprétation d'un corpus des manuscrits attribués au groupe Vrelant: Un aspect de l'enluminure dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux au XVe siècle." Ph.D. diss., Université Catholique de Louvain, 1994; pp. 24, 214-215.

Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, Belgium, 1250-1530. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 271-275, cat. no. 253.

Bousmanne, Bernard. Item à Guillaume Wyelant aussi enlumineur: Willem Vrelant, un aspect de l'enluminure dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux sous le mécénat des ducs de Bourgogne Philippe le Bon et Charles le Téméraire. Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique. Turnhout: Brepols, 1997; pp. 43, 79, 81, 115, 132, 137, 215 (no. H.VI.25), 358 (n. 85), 377.

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Shartrand, Emily

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Brown, Emily; Emery, Doug; Herbold, Rebekah; Noel, William; Schuele, Allyson; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Wiegand, Kimber

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.