Shelfmark
MS 266
Main entry--corporate name
Catholic Church
Title
Book of Hours (Use of Paris) [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL: Horae B.V.M.
Publication, distribution, etc.
France, 1425-1475.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 192 x 135 mm.
Language
Written in Latin and French.
Note
Secundo folio: K[a]l[endas] Januier.
Note
Material: membrane; Gregory's rule (FHHF).
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 100 x 62 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: ii +181 + iii.
Note
Accompanying material: the first folio is a parchment leaf added in the 17th century, bearing an illumination of the Virgin with Child below the arms of Anne of Austria (1601-1666) held by putti (Ker, p.795).
Note
Collation: 1 leaf + 1¹² 2⁸ 3⁴ 4-7⁸ 8⁴ 9⁸ 10⁸ (wants 8) 11⁸ 12⁴ 13⁶ (6 cancelled) 14-16⁸ 17² 18⁸ 19⁶ 20-25⁸.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: no signatures but catchwords throughout save for quires 1, 3, 6, 8, 13, 17, 23 (facing full-page illumination) 10, 15, 24, 25. Quire signatures (A-BB) added in pencil by a modern hand, which do not match Ker's collation formula.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in magenta ink; pricking not visible.
Note
Mise-en-page: single columns (15 lines) written in a set script . Rubrics. Line fillers.
Note
Decoration: the manuscript has 15 full-page illuminations (John the Evangelist as scribe; Annunciation; Mary and Elizabeth; Nativity; angels appear to shepherds; the Three Kings; the escape to Egypt; Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple; ?Peter receives the word of God, Crucifixion; Veneration of the Virgin; the Eucharist; Virgin and Child; Christ and Peter with the Holy Spirit (a dove) holding the Word of God together; martyrdom of St Sebastian). These miniatures occupy 11 or 12 lines, and are surrounded by borders showing floral motifs and birds. On the rest of the pages, there are borders on the vertical margin of the text throughout, displaying rose-bud and ivy-leaf motifs in gold, blue, red and pink. Decorated initials (1-5 lines) on gold ground with foliage infills; smaller initials on purple and blue ground in gold. Line fillers in red and blue ground patterned in white.
Note
Handwriting: northern littera textualis; the letter U shows bastarda influences when appearing at the beginning of a word. Catchwords in bastarda.
Note
Corrections: none.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: no medieval or early modern marginalia. Modern ms. notes on front pastedown, including that of Thomas Phillips' in pencil: "The singularity of this volume consists in the borders on one side of each leaf being a facsimile of the other, except in the large miniatures". On rear pastedown: "Frontispiece 15 portraits 240 borders".
Formatted contents note
Contents: f.1r: full-page illumination of the Virgin with Child; verso has a red and blue border but not illumination; f.2r-13v: calendar; ff.14r-25r: Sequentiae from the Gospels; f.25v: blank; ff.26r-93r: Hours of the Virgin; f.93v: blank; ff.94r-111v: penitential psalms and litany; ff.112r-115v: Hours of the Cross; ff.116r-119r: Hours of the Holy Spirit; f.119v: blank; ff.120r-164v: Office of the dead; ff.165r-170r Les .xv. joies de nostre dame (Sonet, n.458) ; ff.170v-173v: Seven requests to Our Lord in French (Sonet, n.504) ; ff.173r-v: Prayer to the Cross in French (Sonet, n.1876); ff.174r-176r: Nine 8-lines stanzas beginning "Dame ie te rens le salut Qui fist enfer rompre et destruire" (Sonet, n. 318, 320); ff.176v-181v: Suffrages to saints (St Sebastian, St Katherine, St Genevieve, St Apollonia, memoire de pluseurs vierges, St Margaret, memoire de tous sains (Sonet, n.1511).
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 794-795
Citation/references note
J. Sonet, Répertoire d'incipit de prières en encien français, Société de publications romanes et françaises 54 (Geneva, 1956), nos. 318, 320, 458, 504, 1876
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 266
Provenance
Origin: France.
Provenance
Provenance: three erased coats of arms at f.26r (one red, the other two with three fleurs-de-lis in the lower part of the coat). Owned by Anne of Austria in the 17th century, suggested by the added frontispiece preceding the calendar. Different numbers appear on the pastedowns and flyleaves, and may have been former early modern/modern shelfmarks. Two of them ("3898 MSS Ph." and "No 2 Roche mss") refer to Sir Thomas Phillipps' catalogue, and Ker has suggested James Roche of Cork as a possible former owner (Ker, p.795). Pencil notes are on both front and rear endpapers -- one at front flyleaf reads: "This MS appears to have been in the possession of the Royal Family of France [...]". Rear pastedown includes a cut-out from a catalogue entry for this item. It was sold by W.H. Robinson Ltd. to John Hely-Hutchinson in February 1947 (Ker, p.795), who then donated it to Eton in 1954 (bookplate on front pastedown).
Binding
17th-century red morocco over pasteboards. Covers decorated with gilt rolls and fillets to form a border; gilt panel with tools at the corners and filled with fleurs-de-lis; base of clasps intact but leather is missing. Spine with five raised bands, decorated with gilt fillets, rolls and fleur-de-lis tools; old shelf label marked "3898". Textblock trimmed and gilted. Endpapers of undecorated laid paper; two flyleaves at the upper end of the textblock, three at the lower end.
Subject
Catholic Church
Subject
Books of Hours France.
Subject
Illumination of books and manuscripts, French 15th century.
Added entry--name
Phillipps, Thomas, 1792 - 1872 Sir, former owner.
Added entry--name
Anne, 1601 - 1666 Queen, consort of Louis XIII, King of France, former owner.
Added entry--name
Hely-Hutchinson, John former owner.
Added entry--name
William H. Robinson, Ltd. bookseller.
Added entry--place
France.
Language code
lat frm
Identifier
B51340