Book of Hours, Use of Angers. — 15th century; French, Angers (?)

Title

Book of Hours, Use of Angers. — 15th century; French, Angers (?)

Shelfmark

MS. Don. f. 33

Place of origin

French, Angers (?)

Date

15th century

Language

Middle French (ca. 1400-1600)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment, browned at the edges, and somewhat water-stained and -cockled.

Physical extent

i (a pasted-in cutting from a bookseller's catalogue) + ii (lifted pastedown, and flyleaf) + 88 (the last two leaves pasted together).

Hands

Written in good gothic lettre bâtarde in brown ink, in two sizes of script according to liturgical function

Decoration

Headings in red; capitals touched in yellow.

Seven miniatures painted in the style of Maître François, each with an arched top, and surrounded by a full border of stylised and naturalistic foliage, flowers, and fruit (and birds, fol. 50r), in gold and colours, mostly divided into compartments various geomeric shapes (or hearts, fol. 38r), on gold and/or reserved parchment grounds; all somewhat flaked and damaged by water. There is one full-page miniature (fol. 20v); and six large miniatures (of an original twelve?), each above a three- (fol. 13r) or four-line initial in blue with white modelling, on a field of red with gold tracery, enclosing flowers or fruit on a gold ground: (fol. 13r) Obsecro te. Pietà: The Virgin holding the body of Christ across her lap, in front of the Cross, with St. John, St. Mary Magdalen and another nimbed mourning woman each holding an ointment jar. (fol. 20v) Missing text. The Mass of St. Gregory: St. Gregory kneels before the altar, a taperer to either side; the vision of Christ, supported by an angel, bleeding into the chalice on the altar. [Hours of the Virgin, Matins miniature missing, but perhaps responsible for the offsets on fol. 20v] (fol. 34v) Hours of the Cross. Crucifixion; the Virgin and St. John to the left; soldiers to the right, one holding a lance, another a pennant with a black eagle(?) on a gold ground, and another man holding a shield and pointing to Christ. [Hours of the Spirit, Matins miniature missing, with offsets on fol. 35v.] [Hours of the Virgin, Prime miniature missing.] (fol. 38r) Hours of the Virgin, Terce. Annunciation to two shepherds. (fol. 41v) Sext. Adoration of the Magi. [None miniature missing, with offsets on fol. 44v.] [Vespers miniature presumably missing.] (fol. 46r) Compline. Coronation of the Virgin. (fol. 51r) Penitential Psalms. Last Judgment. [Office of the Dead, Vespers miniature missing, with offsets on fol. 59r.] One four-line initial in blue with white feathering, on a square field of red with gold feathering, to Lauds (fol. 27r), another, surrounded by a full border, missing at the start of Matins of the Office of the Dead, with offsets on fol. 62v; two-line initials in gold, on a parti-coloured ground of blue and red, with white tracery, to psalms, lessons, capitula, etc.; similar one-line initials to verses and other minor divisions of the text; similar line-fillers and paraph marks found occasionally.

Binding

Sewn on three cords (endbands lacking); bound in 16th(?)-century dark brown leather over pasteboards, originally tooled in gilt (most of the gilt now gone, creating a blind-tooled effect); the corners of each cover with foliate designs, the centre with a large central oval panel of interlacing scrolls; the interstices with a semée of tiny trefoils; the spine with three raised bands, the compartments tooled with trefoils and horizontal lines; traces of two ties at the fore-edge; badly damaged, the fore- and upper edges particularly frayed and worn; the upper pastedown lifted to reveal a page of scrap paper with 16th(?)-century writing.

Acquisition

Frank Reginald Lindsay Goadby (1899–1985): 'Presented to the Library through the Friends of the Bodleian by Brigadier F. R. L. Goadby' (as stated on a loosely-inserted printed and typescript slip of paper), August 1981.

Provenance

The Use of the Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead suggest that the book was made for, and perhaps in, Angers; this is supported by the the addition of Renatus to the calendar which otherwise generally points more towards West Central France, approximately the area of a triangle formed by Angers-Poitiers-Tours.

Unidentified 18th/19th-century French owner: inscribed 'Ce manuscrit date du 15e siècle' (fol. iii recto).

Mignon Magloire, 19th-century: inscribed 'Magloire Mignon | fils de Dessun Jean' (fol. 29r); 'mignon fils De Dessun | Jean [Pellagie??] Mignon' (fol. 33v); '1822,' and '1[?]820 par magloire' are written below and opposite the prayer on fol. 50r; 'mignon | mignon Magloire | Demeurante à | Aulne[?] Canton(?) | D'Ervy', the last line with 'Rou' or 'Bon' written to the left (fol. 50v).

Unidentified 20th-century English bookseller, with a pasted-in cutting (fol. i) from a catalogue in which the MS. was item 410, priced at £6 15s.