Book of Hours — 15th century, last quarter, after 1471; Netherlandish, Northern, Enkhuizen (?)

Title

Book of Hours — 15th century, last quarter, after 1471; Netherlandish, Northern, Enkhuizen (?)

Shelfmark

MS. Buchanan f. 1

Associated place

Enkhuizen

Place of origin

Netherlandish, Northern, Enkhuizen (?)

Date

15th century, last quarter, after 1471

Language

Middle Dutch (ca. 1050-1350)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment.

Physical extent

ii (paper, the first marbled) + 164 + ii (paper, the second marbled).Penwork decoration somewhat cropped, the outer borders of the inserted leaves considerably cropped.

Hands

Written in gothic bookhand

Decoration

Headings, occasional paraphs and underlinings in red, capitals touched in red; guides for rubrics often visible, e.g. fols. 66r, 67r, 69r, etc.

Six very fine full-page miniatures, each with an arched top, taller than the ruled text area (122–30 mm. high including the arched top, but not the framing), framed by blue and gold lines (pink and gold on fols. 39v, 57v) and a full painted border of stylized foliage, with birds, animals, and grotesques, etc., framed by a double gold fillet (where not cropped), the interstices filled with small gold dots (a similar border is illustrated in colour in the frontispiece to the Sotheby's catalogue referred to below); on single leaves of thicker parchment than the rest, blank on the recto, cropped especially severely at top and bottom, inserted into the manuscript (see also under Provenance): (fol. 10v) Hours of the Virgin. Annunciation, in a vaulted interior; the border with a Wild Man. (fol. 39v) Hours of Eternal Wisdom. The Virgin and Joseph find Christ among the Doctors. (fol. 57v) Long Hours of the Cross. Crucifixion; with the Virgin and John to the left; the Magdalen embracing the Cross; Longinus on horseback, piercing Christ's side; and other soldiers, also mostly on horseback; the border with a Pelican in her Piety. (fol. 76v) Hours of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost; the Apostles seated around the Virgin (Pächt & Alexander, 1, pl. XVII). (fol. 109v) Penitential Psalms. Last Judgement; the Redeemer's head flanked by lilies and a sword; below are the Virgin and John, and figures rising from graves. (fol. 130v) Office of the Dead. Raising of Lazarus; St. Peter unties Lazarus's hands. (The composition is very similar to that in the The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek, 135 E 45, illustrated in the Sotheby's catalogue referred to below, pl. facing p. 56.) The miniatures have been attributed to the Bezborodko Master(s), who also painted Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (J.R. Ritman Library) MS. BPH 2 (dated 1491); Antwerp, Museum Plantin-Moretus, MS. 14.7 (dated 1489); Bloomington, Ind., Indiana University, Lilly Library, MS. Ricketts 133 (dated 1491); and The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek, 135 E 45 (dated 1490; this is the eponymous manuscript, named after a former owner, sold at Sotheby's, 11 December 1979, lot 50.) Seven mostly ten-line initials (nine-line on fols. 110r, 131r) opposite the miniatures, and also at fol. 91r: each composed of a 'puzzle' initial in red and blue pigments, containing, and surrounded by, penwork in red and blue inks, with green and pale yellow washes, usually in all four margins; three-line initials in blue with red penwork and green wash touches at the start of each hour from Lauds to Compline; plain two-line initials alternately in red or blue, at psalms, hymns, lessons, the KL monograms in the calendar, etc.; plain one-line initials alternately in red or blue, at verses and other minor divisions. Hülsemann, in 'Sets of codicological characteristics', states that the penwork decoration in a group of eight manuscripts, all probably from Enkhuizen or the surrounding area, was probably supplied by two hands (she illustrates each in her figs. 6 and 9). Note It is possible that the miniatures were added to the volume at some time after it was first written, but if they did originally belong in the present volume, they are likely to have been included when the book was bound for the first time, and therefore of approximately the same date; other manuscripts with miniatures attributed to the same artist are dated 1489, 1490, 1490, and 1491 (see Broekhuijsen, 'The Bezborodko Masters') suggesting a date in the 1480s or 1490s for the present manuscript. The great difference in the size of the miniatures and the text space, however, combined with the fact that the miniatures are bound in on paper guards of uncertain date, makes the original relationship between the miniatures and text somewhat uncertain. To complicate matters further, each leaf with a miniature has evidence to suggest that it was not always bound into the volume: most have deposits of paste at the top and bottom of their recto, and most have one or both of two types of pin-hole, either (i) at or very close to the upper edge of the leaf, i.e. before trimming; or (ii) somewhat lower (sometimes within the area of the miniature) and often showing a rust stain. This suggests that the leaves (a) were at some stage pasted to a surface, (b) were at some stage pinned to a surface (presumably wooden), and at some subsequent time, after the edges of the leaves were cropped, (c) were again pinned to a surface with ferrous tacks, before (d) they were eventually re-inserted in the manuscript. Addendum (12 April 2000). Since the above paragraphs were written, Dr. Anne Korteweg has kindly informed me that the miniatures certainly did not belong in the present manuscript when it was originally written: the manuscript should be dated c. 1470–80, and the miniatures c. 1490.

Binding

Sewn on five cords, with endbands; bound in 18th(?)-century mottled brown leather over pasteboards, the covers undecorated, the spine with five raised bands and dense gilt ornament in all six compartments; marbled endleaves; one green silk bookmark; the edges of the leaves red with some green speckling; the corners and upper joint rather worn.

Acquisition

Given to the Bodleian by his widow, Mrs. E. O. Buchanan, in 1939, when it was accessioned as MS. Dutch f. 1; re-referenced as MS. Buchanan f. 1 in 1941.

Provenance

Written at or for Enkhuizen(?), as suggested by the calendar and litany, after 1471 (the date of the election of Pope Sixtus IV, who is mentioned on fol. 56r.) See also the Note under Decoration.

Unidentified, presumably post-medieval, owner(s): the characteristic Enkhuizen feasts in red in the calendar were marked by a group of three black dots arranged in a triangle; for reasons now obscure, in the 18th/19th(?) century the numbers '132', '131', and '134' were written against the entries for Eulalia, Gabinius, and Romanus (13 [recte 12], 19, and 28 Feb., respectively), with a letter 'H'(?) immediately after Romanus's name, and 'I _P RCO'(??) in the lower margin (fol. 2r), perhaps just a pen-trial.

Unidentified 19th-century owner(s): inscribed in pencil 'No 1' towards the upper left corner of fol. i verso; to the left of this a circular label has been removed.

John Buchanan: inscribed in pencil with the 'Descriptive list' number, '15.', in the top left corner of fol. i verso.

Rt. Hon. T. R. Buchanan (1846–1911)