The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This Book of Hours for the Use of Chartres was made in the Loire Valley (perhaps Tours, as indicated by the miniatures in the style of Jean Bourdichon) around 1500. The presence of saints local to Chartres (e.g. Cheron, Aignan, and Lubin) in the calendar, along with the dedication of Notre Dame de Chartres on 17 October, suggests intended use in that city, while the distinctive style of the miniatures indicates production in the Loire Valley. It contains a calendar in French, lacking August and December (between fols. 7-8 and 10-11); the Hours of the Cross, lacking its ending (fol. 11v); the Hours of the Virgin, lacking its beginning and at least five other folios presumably excised for their miniatures (fols. 12r-49v); the Penitential Psalms followed by the Litany and associated prayers (fols. 50v-61v); Gospel Lessons from John only (fols. 62r-64v); and the Office for the Dead (fols. 65r-85v). The large bas-de-page vignettes with the Labours of the Months appear to have been inserted in preference to the small miniatures of the same subjects originally planned for frames within the panel borders on each verso within the calendar. In addition to those ten, the manuscript contains seven other miniatures which show the Crucifixion (fol. 11r), Pentecost (fol. 25r), the Nativity (fol. 26r), the Annunciation to the Shepherds (fol. 31r), the Coronation of the Virgin (fol. 45r), King David Praying (fol. 50r), and a funeral scene (fol. 65r). Leaves have been excised from between folios 11-12, 18-19, 34-35, 37-38, and 40-41. These were undoubtedly decorated with large or full-page miniatures for each of the Hours of the Virgin, and likely showed the Annunciation, Visitation, and the Adoration of the Magi among other subjects.
Support: Parchment; Extent: iii+86+iii; 193 x 125 mm bound to 203 x 135 mm; Foliation: Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto; Collation: 1 (10, +1 +5), 2 (8), 3 (7, -1 +1), 4 (8), 5-6 (6), 7 (5, +1), 8 (8), 9 (4), 10 (3, +1), 11 (8), 12 (10), 13 (4, +1 +2 +3 +4); Catchwords: Horizontal catchwords in ink, in lower margin at fols. 32v, 38v, 45v, 57v, 72v, 82v, 83v
One column of twenty-one lines; frame-ruled in faint red ink; written area: 110 x 62 mm
Bâtarde
Red, blue, and gold line fillers and initials throughout; partial foliate panel borders on most pages, some with birds or animal hybrids; ten large and ten small border vignettes in the calendar; one large miniature and six full-page miniatures with full foliate panel borders
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
Paper flyleaves, probably contemporary with nineteenth-century binding
Calendar in French
Repairs to parchment of first five folios
Change in scribal hand from fol. 65r
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Tours?, France
Circa 1500
Nineteenth-century leather, possibly English, with marbled endpapers; gilt-tooled
Latin; Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)
Bernard Quaritch, London, 1877 (catalogue clipping on recto of second upper flyleaf; also found in Quaritch catalogue of 1880); gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art from Mrs. F. Woodson Hancock and Mrs. Lea Hudson in memory of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Lea, 1949
Tours?, France
Circa 1500
Latin; Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)
Bernard Quaritch, London, 1877
This Book of Hours for the Use of Chartres was made in the Loire Valley (perhaps Tours, as indicated by the miniatures in the style of Jean Bourdichon) around 1500. The presence of saints local to Chartres (e.g. Cheron, Aignan, and Lubin) in the calendar, along with the dedication of Notre Dame de Chartres on 17 October, suggests intended use in that city, while the distinctive style of the miniatures indicates production in the Loire Valley. It contains a calendar in French, lacking August and December (between fols. 7-8 and 10-11); the Hours of the Cross, lacking its ending (fol. 11v); the Hours of the Virgin, lacking its beginning and at least five other folios presumably excised for their miniatures (fols. 12r-49v); the Penitential Psalms followed by the Litany and associated prayers (fols. 50v-61v); Gospel Lessons from John only (fols. 62r-64v); and the Office for the Dead (fols. 65r-85v). The large bas-de-page vignettes with the Labours of the Months appear to have been inserted in preference to the small miniatures of the same subjects originally planned for frames within the panel borders on each verso within the calendar. In addition to those ten, the manuscript contains seven other miniatures which show the Crucifixion (fol. 11r), Pentecost (fol. 25r), the Nativity (fol. 26r), the Annunciation to the Shepherds (fol. 31r), the Coronation of the Virgin (fol. 45r), King David Praying (fol. 50r), and a funeral scene (fol. 65r). Leaves have been excised from between folios 11-12, 18-19, 34-35, 37-38, and 40-41. These were undoubtedly decorated with large or full-page miniatures for each of the Hours of the Virgin, and likely showed the Annunciation, Visitation, and the Adoration of the Magi among other subjects.
Paper flyleaves, probably contemporary with nineteenth-century binding
Calendar in French
Repairs to parchment of first five folios
Change in scribal hand from fol. 65r
Bâtarde
Red, blue, and gold line fillers and initials throughout; partial foliate panel borders on most pages, some with birds or animal hybrids; ten large and ten small border vignettes in the calendar; one large miniature and six full-page miniatures with full foliate panel borders
For a full list of Decorations in this manuscript please see the Content and Decorations section by clicking on the [i] button in the top left corner of the image viewer above.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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