This compact Book of Hours, which lacks certain frequently-found texts including the Hours of the Virgin, Penitential Psalms, and Office of the Dead, contains Dutch translations of other, less common devotional texts first authored by Geert Groote around 1380. The calendar is of the Use of Utrecht, with an entry in red for Saint Jeroen (17 August, fol. 8v). The Hours of Eternal Wisdom occurs directly after the calendar. The miniatures in this Book of Hours, of smaller dimensions than the text pages, were inserted into the Hours of the Cross at least twenty years after the manuscript was produced. They are inserted randomly within the text and do not mark the traditional divisions of the Hours of the Cross. These miniatures were painted by a member of a group of anonymous artists known collectively as the "Masters of the Suffrages." These artists were active in Leiden during the first decades of the sixteenth century.
Support: Parchment; Extent: iii+95+iii; 143 x 104 mm bound to 149 x 105 mm; Foliation: Modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto; Collation: 1 (8), 2 (4), 3-5 (8), 6 (10, +3 +6), 7 (11, +2 +6 +9), 8 (10, +1 -4 +7), 9 (7, +1), 10 (8), 11 (6), 12 (8)
One column of nineteen lines, ruled in brown ink, prickings visible; written area: 88 x 59 mm
Gothic--textualis
Seven full-page miniatures tipped in throughout Hours of Eternal Wisdom, with yellow panel borders decorated with trompe l'oeil depictions of foliage, flowers, and insects, three illuminated initials, eleven flourished initials, red and blue letters throughout
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.
Corrections/additions added in margins on fols. 59v, 69v, 80v, 83r, 85v, 87v, 88r, 90r
Graded marginal annotations in red in calendar marking celebrations for Saint Anthony
Manuscript: circa 1475-1500; Inserted miniatures: circa 1520
First and last flyleaves are paper, remainder are parchment; marbled endpapers
Average size of leaves with miniatures: 133 x 100 mm
Leiden, Netherlands
1475-1500; circa 1520
Scottish, vellum binding by Kerr & Richardson of 89 Queen Street, Glasgow (stamp on lower pastedown), marbled endpapers, late nineteenth century; rebacked by Jacques Desmonts of James Macdonald Co., East Norwalk, Connecticut, 2000
Middle Dutch (ca. 1050-1350); Latin
Purchased at Ghent in 1866 by Robert Highfield of Sheffield, England (note on 3rd front flyleaf); Henry Young and Sons (booksellers), Liverpool, 1910, cat. no. 194; John Frederick Lewis, Philadelphia; given by his widow, Anne Baker Lewis, to the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1936
Leiden, Netherlands
1475-1500; circa 1520
Middle Dutch (ca. 1050-1350); Latin
Purchased at Ghent in 1866 by Robert Highfield of Sheffield, England
This compact Book of Hours, which lacks certain frequently-found texts including the Hours of the Virgin, Penitential Psalms, and Office of the Dead, contains Dutch translations of other, less common devotional texts first authored by Geert Groote around 1380. The calendar is of the Use of Utrecht, with an entry in red for Saint Jeroen (17 August, fol. 8v). The Hours of Eternal Wisdom occurs directly after the calendar. The miniatures in this Book of Hours, of smaller dimensions than the text pages, were inserted into the Hours of the Cross at least twenty years after the manuscript was produced. They are inserted randomly within the text and do not mark the traditional divisions of the Hours of the Cross. These miniatures were painted by a member of a group of anonymous artists known collectively as the "Masters of the Suffrages." These artists were active in Leiden during the first decades of the sixteenth century.
Corrections/additions added in margins on fols. 59v, 69v, 80v, 83r, 85v, 87v, 88r, 90r
Graded marginal annotations in red in calendar marking celebrations for Saint Anthony
Manuscript: circa 1475-1500; Inserted miniatures: circa 1520
First and last flyleaves are paper, remainder are parchment; marbled endpapers
Average size of leaves with miniatures: 133 x 100 mm
Gothic--textualis
Seven full-page miniatures tipped in throughout Hours of Eternal Wisdom, with yellow panel borders decorated with trompe l'oeil depictions of foliage, flowers, and insects, three illuminated initials, eleven flourished initials, red and blue letters throughout
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.
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