The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This is a North Netherlandish Book of Hours of circa 1470, the text of which is based on the Dutch translation of Geert Groote. The book begins with an unillustrated calendar (fols. 1r-12v) before continuing with the Hours of the Virgin (fols. 13r-50r), which is introduced by a historiated initial featuring the Virgin and Child and a full border containing angels, the only figurative decoration in the book. The figurative decoration can be ascribed to the workshop of the Masters of the Zwolle Bible. Other major sections are introduced by large illuminated initials featuring expansive areas of gold and foliate bar borders typical of Dutch book illustration of the fifteenth century: the Hours of the Cross (fols. 51r-73v), Hours of the Holy Spirit (fols. 74r-98v), and Hours the Holy Wisdom (fols. 100r-121r), as well as the Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers (fols. 122r-140v) and Office of the Dead (fols. 142r-178r). The textual subdivisions within each section are marked by illuminated initials and bar borders with flourishes.
Support: Parchment; Extent: ii+178+ii; 162 x 118 mm bound to 165 x 124 mm; Foliation: Unfoliated; Collation: 1 (12), 2-5 (8), 6 (6), 7-8 (8), 9 (8, -1), 10-11 (8), 12 (10), 13-14 (8), 15 (6), 16-17 (8), 18 (4), 19 (8), 20 (6), 21-22 (8), 23 (8, -1)
One column of eighteen lines; ruled in brown ink; written area: 85 x 61 mm
Gothic--textualis
One historiated initial; five large illuminated initials; six foliate bar borders; thirty smaller illuminated initials and thirty illuminated single-side bar borders; alternating blue and red initials throughout; alternating blue and gold initials in the litany
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.
Most pricking preserved at extreme margins
July 1988 description by Lawrence Witten on file at Archives and Special Collections Department, Franklin and Marshall College
Trace of removed ex-libris on recto of final lower flyleaf
Guards inserted between each gathering
Prayers in Dutch in a different hand added on fols. 99r-99v and 141r
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.
Zwolle, Netherlands
Between 1470 and 1480
Perhaps original, though rebacked; beveled beech boards covered in calf with a central panel of triple rules forming a pattern of lozenges; the five bands of the original back were sewn onto thongs, still visible, which were drawn into channels in the covers, glued, and pegged; most of the pegs remain; the two well-wrought brass catches, each fastened with two brass nails, are present on the upper cover, as are the brass and leather attachments on the lower; the catches themselves have been lost
Middle Dutch (ca. 1050-1350)
Ownership note written in pencil, in French, on verso of first upper flyleaf: "11, Ex de M. de La Grange, no. 9"; given to Franklin and Marshall College in 1988 by Elaine Hawley of Lancaster, PA
Zwolle, Netherlands
Between 1470 and 1480
Middle Dutch (ca. 1050-1350)
Ownership note written in pencil, in French, on verso of first upper flyleaf: "11, Ex de M. de La Grange, no. 9"; given to Franklin and Marshall College in 1988 by Elaine Hawley of Lancaster, PA
This is a North Netherlandish Book of Hours of circa 1470, the text of which is based on the Dutch translation of Geert Groote. The book begins with an unillustrated calendar (fols. 1r-12v) before continuing with the Hours of the Virgin (fols. 13r-50r), which is introduced by a historiated initial featuring the Virgin and Child and a full border containing angels, the only figurative decoration in the book. The figurative decoration can be ascribed to the workshop of the Masters of the Zwolle Bible. Other major sections are introduced by large illuminated initials featuring expansive areas of gold and foliate bar borders typical of Dutch book illustration of the fifteenth century: the Hours of the Cross (fols. 51r-73v), Hours of the Holy Spirit (fols. 74r-98v), and Hours the Holy Wisdom (fols. 100r-121r), as well as the Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers (fols. 122r-140v) and Office of the Dead (fols. 142r-178r). The textual subdivisions within each section are marked by illuminated initials and bar borders with flourishes.
Most pricking preserved at extreme margins
July 1988 description by Lawrence Witten on file at Archives and Special Collections Department, Franklin and Marshall College
Trace of removed ex-libris on recto of final lower flyleaf
Guards inserted between each gathering
Prayers in Dutch in a different hand added on fols. 99r-99v and 141r
Gothic--textualis
One historiated initial; five large illuminated initials; six foliate bar borders; thirty smaller illuminated initials and thirty illuminated single-side bar borders; alternating blue and red initials throughout; alternating blue and gold initials in the litany
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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