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Walters Ms. W.179, Book of Hours

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Shelf mark

W.179


Manuscript

Book of Hours


Text title
Book of Hours

Abstract

This Book of Hours was created ca.1460-70 in the Bruges region by artists influenced by the famous illuminator Willem Vrelant. Its fifteen surviving miniatures have been heavily repainted, as have many of the borders, and Lillian Randall has suggested this campaign of refurbishment was likely requested by a later owner who may be depicted in the fully redone Last Judgment image (fol. 124v). The limited number of figures, simplification of drapery folds, and avoidance of painting hands where possible show the streamlining used by workshops in this period, which were generating large numbers of similar books (see, for example, also W.177, W.180, W.181, and W.774).


Date

Ca. 1460-1470 CE


Origin

Bruges


Artist

Supplied name: Orbit of Willem Vrelant


Form

Book


Genre

Devotional


Language:

The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.


Support material

Parchment

Thin to medium-weight, well-finished parchment


Extent

Foliation: iv+213+iv

Modern pencil foliation, upper right corners, rectos


Collation

Formula: Quire 1: 12 (fols. 1-12); Quire 2: 8, with first and ninth folios added (fols. 13-22); Quire 3: 8, with sixth folio added (fols. 23-31); Quire 4: 8, with fifth folio added (fols. 32-40); Quires 5-6: 8 (fols. 41-56); Quire 7: 8, with second folio added (fols. 57-65); Quire 8: 10, with first folio cancelled and seventh folio added (fols. 66-75); Quire 9: 6, with third folio added (76-82); Quire 10:, with second and eighth folios added (fols. 83-92); Quire 11: 8, with fourth folio added (fols. 93-101); Quire 12: 8, with fifth folio added (fols. 102-110); Quire 13: 8, with third folio added (fols. 111-119); Quire 14: 8, with fifth folio added (fols. 120-128); Quires 15-23: 8 (fols. 129-201); Quire 24: 2, with third folio added (fols. 202-204); Quire 25: 10, with tenth folio cancelled (205-213)

Catchwords: None

Signatures: None

Comments: Miniatures have been inserted


Dimensions

6.8 cm wide by 9.5 cm high


Written surface

3.6 cm wide by 5.4 cm high


Layout
  1. Columns: 1
  2. Ruled lines: 16
  3. Ruled in beige ink; layout does not apply to calendar: written space 3.4 x 5.7 cm, 3 columns, 17 lines

Contents:
fols. 1r - 213v:
  1. Title: Book of Hours
  2. Hand note: Italianate gotica rotunda
  3. Decoration note: Fifteen extant full-page inserted miniatures (figures heavily repainted); foliate borders match across openings around full-page miniatures and facing texts; large decorated initials in gold, blue, rose, and green begin major text divisions (5 lines) and similar initials without green at secondary text divisions and for KL in calendar (2-3 lines); small flourished initials in alternating blue and gold with red and black penwork for versals (1 line); line fillers in litany in gold and blue geometric patterns; rubrics in red; text in brown ink
fols. 1r - 12v:
  1. Title: Calendar
  2. Rubric: Januarius xxxi luna xxx.
  3. Contents: One-third filled, graded in red and brown ink; contains both South Netherlandish and North French saints; saints of note include Gudula (Jan. 9), Amandus and Vedast (Feb. 6), Walburga (Feb. 23), Augustine (Feb. 28, translation), Quintinus (Mar. 30), Sixtus I (Apr. 9, usually Apr. 6), Sophia (May 15), Bernardinus of Siena (May 20, canonized 1450), Basil (June 14), Marcellus (Sept. 3), Remigius and Bavo (Oct. 1), Callistus (Oct. 13), Donatian (Oct. 14), Paulinus (Dec. 19)
fols. 13v - 20v:
  1. Title: Hours of the Cross
  2. Rubric: Officium sancte. Crucis.
  3. Incipit: Domine labia mea aperies
  4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 13v
fols. 21v - 27v:
  1. Title: Hours of the Holy Spirit
  2. Rubric: Officium de sanctu spiritu
  3. Incipit: Domine labia mea aperies
  4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 21v
fols. 28v - 35v:
  1. Title: Mass of the Virgin
  2. Rubric: Introitus misse beate virginis marie.
  3. Incipit: Salve sancta parens enixa puerpera regem
  4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 28v
fols. 36v - 112v:
  1. Title: Hours of the Virgin
  2. Rubric: Officium beate marie virginis secundum usum Romanum. Ad matutinas.
  3. Incipit: Domine labia mea aperies
  4. Contents: Use of Rome
  5. Decoration note: Eight full-page miniatures, fols. 36v, 58v, 72v, 78v, 84v, 90v, 96v, and 106v
fols. 113v - 123v:
  1. Title: Advent Office of the Virgin
  2. Rubric: Officium beate marie virginis quod dicitur per totum adventum ad vesperas.
  3. Incipit: Deus in adjutorium meum intende
  4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 113v
fols. 124v - 138r:
  1. Title: Seven Penitential Psalms
  2. Rubric: Septem psalmi penitentiales antiphona
  3. Incipit: Ne reminisearis. Domine ne in furore
  4. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 124v
fols. 138r - 148v:
  1. Title: Litany, petitions, and collects
  2. Incipit: Kyrieleyson
  3. Contents: Fols. 138r-141r: Litany, with saints mostly for Use of Rome: sixteen apostles, evangelists, and disciples from Peter to Mark; eleven martyrs; seven popes/confessors/doctors; eight monks/hermits/priests/levites, which includes Alexius; ten virgins and widows, including Mary Magdalene, Agnes, and Clare; fols. 141r-144r: petitions and invocations; fols. 144r-145r: imprecations; fols. 145r-148v: ten collects
fols. 149v - 201v:
  1. Title: Office of the Dead
  2. Rubric: Officium mortuorum antiphona.
  3. Incipit: Placebo. Dilexi quoniam exaudiet Dominus
  4. Contents: Use of Rome
  5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 149v
fols. 202v - 210v:
  1. Title: Added devotional sequence
  2. Rubric: De sancta veronica. oratio.
  3. Incipit: Salve sancta facies nostri redemptoris
  4. Contents: Added early, very close in style of decoration and script, but poorer quality parchment than rest of manuscript; fols. 202v-204r: Suffrage to the Holy Face; fols. 204v-205v: Five verses of St. Gregory; fols. 206r-210v: Prayer to the Virgin (Obsecro te)
  5. Decoration note: Full-page miniature fol. 202v (heavily repainted)

Decoration:

fol. 13v:

  1. W.179, fol. 13v
  2. Title: Crucifixion
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Cross

fol. 21v:

  1. W.179, fol. 21v
  2. Title: Pentecost
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit

fol. 28v:

  1. W.179, fol. 28v
  2. Title: Virgin and Child
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Mass of the Virgin

fol. 36v:

  1. W.179, fol. 36v
  2. Title: Annunciation
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Matins

fol. 58v:

  1. W.179, fol. 58v
  2. Title: Visitation
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Lauds

fol. 72v:

  1. W.179, fol. 72v
  2. Title: Nativity and adoration
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Prime

fol. 78v:

  1. W.179, fol. 78v
  2. Title: Annunciation to the shepherds
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Terce

fol. 84v:

  1. W.179, fol. 84v
  2. Title: Adoration of the Magi
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Sext

fol. 90v:

  1. W.179, fol. 90v
  2. Title: Presentation in the temple
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: None

fol. 96v:

  1. W.179, fol. 96v
  2. Title: Massacre of an innocent
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Vespers

fol. 106v:

  1. W.179, fol. 106v
  2. Title: Flight into Egypt
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Hours of the Virgin: Compline

fol. 113v:

  1. W.179, fol. 113v
  2. Title: Coronation of the Virgin
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Advent Office of the Virgin

fol. 124v:

  1. W.179, fol. 124v
  2. Title: Last Judgment
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Seven Penitential Psalms

fol. 149v:

  1. W.179, fol. 149v
  2. Title: Raising of Lazarus
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Office of the Dead

fol. 202v:

  1. W.179, fol. 202v
  2. Title: Salvator mundi
  3. Form: Full-page miniature
  4. Text: Suffrage to the Holy Face

Binding

The binding is not original.

Partially rebound by Walters conservation staff ca. 1996 in brown goatskin leather, sewing new endbands but retaining the nineteenth-century sewing of the textblock, as well as reattaching the pastedowns and facing endleaves, which were hand-decorated with a pattern in yellow and dark blue; page edges gilt; binding at time of purchase by Walters (also imaged here) was early nineteenth-century dark green velvet, probably Italian; resewn on three recessed cords; white and yellow silk endbands; inscription on spine in gold read: "OFFICIUM M.S. IN MEMB"


Provenance

Created in Bruges ca. 1460-70 by workshop influenced by Willem Vrelant

Edouard Rahir, Paris bookseller, firm of Damascène Morgand, ca. 1900, his inventory number "26005" on front flyleaf i, v

"Bt of Morgand [Paris] July 1901 for 2000 [francs]" inscribed on front flyleaf i, v

Peter Marié, New York; lot number "561" of his sale in 1903 inscribed on front flyleaf i, v

George Richmond, New York bookseller, 1903 (?), likely his mark in pencil "efx" on back flyleaf iv, r

Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased between 1903 and 1931


Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest


Bibliography

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. 812, cat. no. 344.

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; p. 720.

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. 391.

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. 295-298, cat. no. 259.

Kren, Thomas. "Anonymous: Book of Hours, Use of Rome." In Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe. Edited by Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick, 486-487. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003; p. 487, ref. under cat. no. 161.


Contributors

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

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


Publisher

The Walters Art Museum


License

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.