Walters Ms. W.165, Loftie Hours

W.165

Loftie Hours

Book of Hours

This mid-fifteenth-century illuminated Book of Hours is written entirely in Dutch on fine parchment and is remarkable for its eighteen grisaille miniatures. This technique, wherein the figures are modeled primarily in a gray wash, became a favorite in the Netherlands. The hand behind the miniatures in this manuscript has been identified with a group of artists known as the Masters of the Delft Grisailles. The manuscript has been grouped with more than a dozen related works, including New York, Morgan Ms. M.349; London, Victoria and Albert Geo. Reid Ms. 32; Leiden, BPL Ms. 224; Brussels, BR Ms. 21696; Antwerp, Plantin Moretus Ms. 49; and The Hague, KB Ms. 74 G 35. The manuscript is comprised of 152 folios and is almost completely intact, lacking only two miniatures. It retains its original brown leather binding decorated with mythological beasts and a now illegible inscription. The calendar is for the Use of Utrecht, which helps localize its original ownership, as might a mostly erased ownership inscription that has been partially recovered. Good impressions of two circular pilgrim badges, now removed, are visible on fol. 112v.

Middle of the 15th century CE

Netherlands

Supplied name: Masters of the Delft Grisailles

Book

Devotional

The primary language in this manuscript is Dutch; Flemish.

Parchment

Thin to medium-weight, clean white vellum, well surfaced on both sides with very few hair follicles showing; miniatures on heavier parchment

Foliation: i+152+i

Foliation in pencil in upper right corners of rectos

Formula: i, 1(8,-1,2), 2(6), 3(10,-1,9), 4(10,-4,8), 5(6,-1,5), 6(6), 7-11(8), 12(8,-8), 13(8), 14(6), 15(8,-8), 16(12,-5,9,12), 17(10,-6,8,10), 18(10,-6,8,10) 19(8,-7), 20-21(8), i

Catchwords: None

Signatures: None

Comments: Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 7(2), 13(3), 21(4), 29(5), 33(6), 39(7), 47(8), 55(9), 63(10), 71(11), 79(12), 86(13), 94(14), 100(15), 107(16), 116(17), 123(18), 130(19), 137(20), 145(21); full-page miniatures on singletons; lacking full-page miniatures before fols. 16r and 18r (as shown by offsets); two other miniatures possibly misbound: Man of Sorrows (fol. 79v) may have been intended for or originally placed facing the prayer to Christ (fol. 101r) and Last Judgment (fol. 100v) may have been intended for or originally placed facing the Seven Penitential Psalms and the litany (fol. 80r)

9.5 cm wide by 14.5 cm high

5.3 cm wide by 7.6 cm high

1. Columns: 1
2. Ruled lines: 16
3. Ruled in brown with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines, full across

fols. 1r - 152r:

1. Title: Book of Hours
2. Hand note: Written in Gothic bookhand; one hand responsible for the majority of text; a different, less professional hand responsible for added prayers in the same script on fols. 114v-115v and 128v-130r
3. Decoration note: Full-page grisaille miniatures throughout; baguette along the left side of the text column, with extensions, present on most folios commencing major new texts; ordinary leaves with decorated initials (4 to 5 lines), done in gold on red and blue cusped fields with white tracery and/or blue with white tracery on cusped gold fields, enclosing painted foliage and flowers; ordinary initials with extensions from the initial into the upper or left margin; capitals stroked with red; red rubrics; alternating red and blue initials throughout (1 to 2 lines)

fols. 1r - 12v:

1. Title: Calendar
2. Rubric: Januarius
3. Text note: Use of Utrecht; about half full; graded red and black

fols. 13v - 31r:

1. Title: Short Hours of the Cross
2. Rubric: Dit is tcorte cruus getide
3. Incipit: O Heer du salste opdoen mine lippen
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniatures of the Passion cycle on fols. 13v, 20v, 23v, 26v, and 29v; missing miniatures before prime (fol. 16r) and terce (fol. 18r)

fols. 32v - 78v:

1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
2. Incipit: Here du sulste vp doen mine lippen
3. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 32v

fols. 79v - 95v:

1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms and litany
2. Rubric: Dit sijn die vii Spalmen
3. Incipit: Here in dynre uerboghenheit en straffe
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 79v

fols. 96r - 96r:

1. Title: Prayer for the dead
2. Rubric: Dit ghebet leestmen voir alle zielen
3. Incipit: Weest ghegruet alle ghelovighe zielen

fols. 96v - 99r:

1. Title: Three prayers to the Virgin
2. Rubric: Dit is een goet ghebet van onser Vrouwen
3. Incipit: Heilighe Vrouwe, Gods moeder, ontfaet mijn (fol. 96v); O alre heilichste, o alre suetste, oalre ontfermhertichste (fol. 97v); God gruet u coninghinne der hemelen (fol. 98v)
4. Decoration note: Decorated initial on fol. 96v

fols. 100v - 106v:

1. Title: Two prayers to Christ
2. Incipit: Almachtighe scepper alre dinghen (fol. 101r); Ic danck dij lieve here dattu dijn martelie (fol. 106r)
3. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 100v

fols. 107v - 109v:

1. Title: Prayer to the face of Christ
2. Rubric: Veronica
3. Incipit: God gruet u heilich aenschijn Gods ons verlossers
4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 107v

fols. 110v - 112r:

1. Title: Prayer to the Five Wounds of Christ
2. Incipit: Weest ghegruet heilighe Vijf Wonden mijns heren
3. Decoration note: Full page miniature on fol. 110v

fols. 113v - 114v:

1. Title: Prayer to the Holy Cross
2. Incipit: O gloriose Cruus, bloeyende groen hout vol alre genaden
3. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 113v

fols. 114v - 115v:

1. Title: Prayer to Christ
2. Incipit: [H]eere Jhu Xpe die te compleet
3. Text note: This prayer is a later addition to the manuscript, written on blank folios in the sixteenth century
4. Hand note: Written in Dutch textualis script by a different, later hand than the rest of the manuscript, likely the same hand that added the prayer on fols. 128v-130r

fols. 116v - 128v:

1. Title: Suffrages for saints
2. Rubric: Een goet ghebet van s' Anthoniis
3. Incipit: Anthonius heilighe vrient Gods die menich
4. Contents: Suffrages for SS. Anthony (fol. 117r-v), John the Baptist (fol. 119r-v), Sebastian (fols. 121r-122r), Catherine (fol. 124r-v), Agnes (fol. 126r-v), and Barbara (fol. 128r-v)
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniatures accompanying the text for each saint on fols. 116v, 118v, 120v, 123v, 125v, and 127v; impressions of pilgrim badges, now removed, slightly visible on fol. 122v

fols. 128v - 130r:

1. Title: Luke's account of the Incarnation
2. Incipit: In dese seste maent wert die ingel Gabriel
3. Text note: Dutch translation of Luke 1:26-38, added to blank folios in the sixteenth century
4. Hand note: Written in Dutch textualis by a different, later hand than the rest of the manuscript, likely the same hand that added the prayer on fol. 115r-v

fols. 130v - 152r:

1. Title: Office of the Dead
2. Rubric: Dit is die Vigelie in Duutsche
3. Incipit: Mi hebben ombevanghen
4. Text note: Three-lesson version of the Office of the Dead
5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature on fol. 130v

fol. 13v:

1. 
2. Title: Arrest of Christ
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Short Hours of the Cross: matins

fol. 20v:

1. 
2. Title: Christ carrying the Cross
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Short Hours of the Cross: sext

fol. 23v:

1. 
2. Title: Crucifixion
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Short Hours of the Cross: none

fol. 26v:

1. 
2. Title: Deposition from the Cross
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Short Hours of the Cross: vespers

fol. 29v:

1. 
2. Title: Entombment of Christ
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Short Hours of the Cross: compline

fol. 32v:

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

fol. 79v:

1. 
2. Title: Man of Sorrows in the tomb with the instruments of the Passion
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms
5. Label: This miniature may originally have been placed facing the prayer to Christ on fol. 101r.

fol. 100v:

1. 
2. Title: Last Judgment
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Prayers to the limbs of Christ
5. Label: This miniature may originally have been placed facing the Seven Penitential Psalms and litany on fol. 80r.

fol. 107v:

1. 
2. Title: Veronica with the sudarium
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Prayer to the face of Christ

fol. 110v:

1. 
2. Title: Five Wounds of Christ
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Prayer to the Five Wounds of Christ

fol. 113v:

1. 
2. Title: Holy Cross with symbols of the four Evangelists
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Prayer to the Holy Cross

fol. 116v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Anthony
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrage

fol. 118v:

1. 
2. Title: St. John the Baptist
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrage

fol. 120v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Sebastian
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrage

fol. 123v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Catherine
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrage

fol. 125v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Agnes
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrage

fol. 127v:

1. 
2. Title: St. Barbara
3. Form: Full-page miniature
4. Text: Suffrage

fol. 130v:

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

The binding is original.

Probably fifteenth-century; worn brown calf over boards, panel-stamped in blind; frame of double fillets enclosing two rectangular panel stamps, each 5.0 x 7.1 cm, of two files of three mythological beasts and grotesques, surrounded by an inscription in Gothic script (inscription illegible and beasts not identifiable because of wear to the binding); sewn on four raised bands, rebacked; post-medieval brass catch and clasp; all edges gilt

Late fifteenth-century ownership inscription of Margriete Rogm[arie?]: Desen boeck hoert toe (margriete rogm[arie?] wonende te bruessel int spe[..]sen hof); translated: This book belongs to Margriete rogm[arie?] who lives in the spe[..]sen hof in Brussels; inscription partially erased but partly legible under ultraviolet light (the latter portion indicated by round parenthesis); transliteration and translation by Marrow (fol. 152r)

Rev. W. J. Loftie (1839-1911)

Leon Gruel, no. 1164 (bookplate, front pastedown)

Henry Walters, Baltimore, acquired from Gruel prior to 1931

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest

Cockerell, Sydney Carlye. Exhibition of Illuminated Manuscripts. London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1908, no. 243, pl. 149.

Byvanck, Alexander Willem, and Godefridus Johannes Hoogewerf. La miniature hollandaise dans les manuscrits des 14e, 15e et 16e siècles. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1922-26, p. 24, no. 45, pl. 13.

Da Costa Greene, Belle, and Meta P. Harrsen. The Pierpont Morgan Library, Exhibition of Illuminated Manuscripts Held at the New York Public Library. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1934, no. 102.

De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 787, no. 192.

Miner, Dorothy. "Dutch Illuminated Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery." Connoisseur Yearbook (1954-55): 75-76.

Marrow, James. "A Book of Hours from the Circle of the Master of the Berlin Passion: Notes on the Relationship between Fifteenth-Century Manuscript Illumination and Printmaking in the Rhenish Lowlands." Art Bulletin 60 (1978): 609, no. 62, pl. 46 (fol. 23v).

Marrow, James. Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance: A Study of the Transformation of Sacred Metaphor into Descriptive Narrative. Ars Neerlandica. Vol. 1. Kortrijk, Belgium: Van Ghemmert, 1979, p. 225, no. 8b.

Farquhar, James Douglas. "Manuscript Production and Evidence for Localizing and Dating Fifteenth-Century Books of Hours: Walters Ms. 239." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 45 (1987): 44-102, fig. 56 (fol. 116v).

Marrow, James H., Henri L. M. Defoer, Anne S. Korteweg, and Wilhelmina C.M. Wüstefeld. The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting. New York: George Braziller, 1990, pp. 188-189, no. 52.

Principal cataloger: Marrow, James

Cataloger: Devine, Alex

Editors: Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William

Copy editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Dutschke, Consuelo; Emery, Doug; Noel, William; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-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.