Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Hours of Eleanora Gonzaga'); Italy, Rome, 1509 × 1538 (before 1527 (?) or c. 1535-7 (?))

Title

Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Hours of Eleanora Gonzaga'); Italy, Rome, 1509 × 1538 (before 1527 (?) or c. 1535-7 (?))

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 29

Place of origin

Italy, Rome

Date

1509 × 1538 (before 1527 (?) or c. 1535–7 (?))

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

iv + 137 + iiileaves

Hands

Humanistic cursive, attributed by Alfred Fairbank (1974) to Lodovico Arrighi (d. 1527?), papal scriptor.

Decoration

Twenty-six full-page miniatures arranged in typological pairs Fols. iii v - iv r: arms and illuminated ex libris of Eleonora Gonzaga (see Provenance) Matins (fol. iv verso - fol. I r): Moses and the Tablets; Annunciation Lauds (fol. XIIII v - XV r): Anna and Joachim at the Golden Gate; Visitation Prime (fol. XXIII v - XXIIII r): Birth of St John the Baptist; Nativity of Christ Terce (fol. XXVII v - XXVIII r): Jacob's Dream; Annunciation to the Shepherds Sext (fol. XXXI v - XXXII r): Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; Adoration of the Magi None (fols. XXXV v - XXXVI r): Presentation of Samuel in the Temple; Presentation of Christ in the Temple Vespers (fols. XXXIX v - XL r): Crossing of the Red Sea; Flight into Egypt Compline (fols. XLV v - XLVI r): Solomon's Dream; Christ Teaching in the Temple Mass of the Virgin (fols. LV v - LVI r): Israelites Gathering Manna; Last Supper Penitential Psalms (fols. LX v - LXI r): Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; David Praying Office of the Dead (fol. LXXVI v - LXXVII r): Expulsion from Paradise; Entombment Office of the Passion, Matins (fol. CX v - CXI r): Christ Bearing the Cross; Sacrifice of Isaac Office of the Holy Spirit (fol. CXXXI v - CXXXII r): Sacrifice of Elijah; Pentecost

All miniatures with borders, many with still-life motifs (fish, birds, etc.), many also with four historiated roundels on each page of an opening.

Initials.

Binding

Red velvet with enamelled clasps, one lost (18th cent.?).

Acquisition

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1834

Provenance

On fol.iiiv are the arms of the Della Rovere, dukes of Urbino, impaling those of the Gonzaga; fol.iv, illuminated ex libris of Eleonora Gonzaga: LEONORE GONZAGE URBINI DUCI. Francceso Maria I, duke of Urbino (d. 1538) married Eleanora Gonzaga in 1509. The proposed date 'before 1527' relies on the presumed death of the scribe Lodovico Arrighi in that year; Maria Saffiotti Dale, in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani, edited Milvia Bollati (Milan, 2004), 900-1, suggests c. 1535-7 as more plausible stylistically.

'Purchas'd in Italy by Henrietta Louisa countess of Pomfret' (d. 1761) (note by Douce, fol. ii r)

Francis Douce, 1757–1834

Title

The Hours of the Virgin according to the use of Rome

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 29

Summary

Comprises

(fol. 56) Mass of the Virgin

(fol. 61) Penitential Psalms with litany

(fol. 76v) 'Offitium defunctorum'

(fol. 110) 'Officium sacratissime Passionis ... Iesu Christi, a sancto Bonaventura cardinali ... editum'

(fol. 131v) 'Offitium Sancti Spiritus'

There are twenty-six very fine full-page miniatures in groups of two, each a type and an antitype from the Old and New Testaments respectively, which are described with much fulness but some inaccuracy in Waagen's Treasures of Art in Great Britain (1854), iii. 108 (where he pronounces them 'one of the most beautiful specimens of Italian miniature-painting, of the best period of the cinquecento that I know)'; and better in John W. Bradley's Life of Giorgio Giulio Clovio (1891), p. 316, where the author agrees with Waagen, and doubtfully assigns the volume to Clovio himself, regarding it as a combination of the Italian and Netherlandish schools.

On fol. iiiv are the arms of the Della Rovere, dukes of Urbino, impaling those of Gonzaga, and on fol. iv the illuminated dedication 'Leonorę Gonzagę Vrbini duci': for whom no doubt the book was painted. The extreme dates must therefore be, Sept. 1509, the date of the marriage of Eleonora Ippolita Gonzaga with Francesco Maria I, duke of Urbino, and Oct 1538, the date of his death.

Date

written in about 1520-1530 in Italy

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, with very fine miniatures, borders, etc., binding: red velvet with enamelled clasps, one lost (18th cent.?)

Physical extent

140 Leaves

Custodial history

'Purchas'd in Italy by Henrietta Louisa countess of Pomfret' (d. 1761).