Breviary (Bridgettine) — 15th century, last quarter; Netherlandish, Diocese of Liège, Bridgettine nunnery of Mariënwater

Title

Breviary (Bridgettine) — 15th century, last quarter; Netherlandish, Diocese of Liège, Bridgettine nunnery of Mariënwater

Shelfmark

MS. Buchanan f. 2

Place of origin

Netherlandish, Diocese of Liège, Bridgettine nunnery of Mariënwater

Date

15th century, last quarter

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment.

Physical extent

An original pastedown + i (modern paper) + 317 + i (modern paper) + an original pastedown.decoration cropped in all outer margins (calendar)

Hands

Written in a good, regular, gothic bookhand

Decoration

Headings in red (occasionally in blue, e.g. fols. 140v, 175v), with guides occasionally visible in the gutter margin in cursive script (e.g. fols. 140v, 141r, 306r); capitals, when not painted, touched in red; marginal colour notes in plummet for two-line initials, apparently in the vernacular: 'b' for blue (i.e. blauw?), 'r'(?) for red (i.e. rood?) (e.g. fols. 4r, 5r, 25r, 28v).

Three (of an original four?) large fourteen- (fols. 131r, 185r) or twelve-line (fol. 12r) painted initials, containing foliage and flowers, on a patterned gold ground; each with a four-sided gold and painted border of stylised and naturalistic foliage and flowers (fol. 185r also with fruit): (fol. 12r) Psalm 1. Initial B[eatus]; the lower border with two gold heart shapes joined by interlace decoration. (fol. 131r) Psalm 109. Initial D[ixit] (Pächt & Alexander, 1, pl. XVII, no. 247). (fol. 185r) Office of the Virgin. Initial T[rinum]; the lower border with the letters 'b l' (or 'b i'?) joined by interlace decoration (see also under Provenance). An offset on fol. 243v suggests that a similar initial with a full border may have originally decorated the start of the Office for Thursday, for no apparent reason. One might expect that the removal of the first leaf of the Office of the Holy Spirit was on account of its being decorated, but there is little visible offset on fol. 298v which might support this. Eight- or nine-line 'puzzle' initials in red and blue, with reserved designs, enclosing and surrounded by penwork in red and purple inks, extending into the margins, partially filled with blue, green and yellow, at major divisions of the Psalms: Ps. 26 (fol. 36v), Ps. 38 (fol. 52r), Ps. 52 (fol. 66r), Ps. 80 (fol. 97v), Ps. 97 (fol. 113v) and the start of the Offices for Monday to Saturday (fols. 203r, 216v, 230v, [leaf for Thursday missing before fol. 244,] 258v, 275v); similar six- or seven-line initials at the other major divisions of the Psalms: Ps. 51 (fol. 65r), Ps. 68 (fol. 79v), and Ps. 101 (fol. 116r), but with the body of the initial in blue only; three-line initials, many with reserved designs, alternately in red with purple penwork, or blue with red penwork, to psalms, the start of each hour from Lauds to Compline in the offices, lessons, etc.; plain two-line initials, alternately red or blue, to hymns, collects, the KL monograms in the calendar, etc.; plain one-line initials, alternately red or blue, to verses and other minor textual divisions; line-fillers in red and blue in the litany. [Addendum (12 April 2000). Dr. Anne Korteweg kindly informs me that the puzzle initials have a penwork style known as 'rivers', and that the simple initials have a stiff variety of these 'rivers': see Korteweg, ed., Kriezels, p. 154 and nos. 153–4.] On decorated manuscripts from Mariënwater see A. van Veenendaal, 'Gedecoreerde handschriften van Mariënwater', in In Buscoducis 1450–1629. Kunst uit de Bourgondische tijd te 's-Hertogenbosche: de cultuur van late Middeleeuwen en Renaissance, 2, ed. A. M. Koldeweij (Maarssen, etc., 1990), 497–500, 613; and de Beer, 'Noord-Brabant', esp. 154–6, 160–2 nos. 151–5. Note. The structure of quires XV and XVII deserves brief comment. The stub of the cancelled leaf between fols. 108 & 109 is wide enough to preserve traces of script and decoration, and therefore shows that this leaf had been written on both sides, and decorated on the recto with a three-line initial in red, pen-flourished in purple, like the initial which now replaces it in the same position on fol. 109. Elsewhere, the pen-flourishing of three-line initials overlaps one-line initials, demonstrating that the latter were executed first. This suggests that, exceptionally, the leaf must have been cancelled and replaced not only after the (whole?) book had been written, but after at least two stages of its decoration were also complete. The stub between fols. 130 & 131 preserves traces of script, evidence of its having been written on the verso (and therefore also on the recto) before being cancelled. The leaf which now replaces the cancelled leaf, fol. 131, is the last leaf of the quire, and contains the major decorated initial to Psalm 109; this suggests that the scribe did not leave enough space for the initial when he/she first wrote out the text of Psalm 109, but that this mistake was noticed and rectified before he/she started to write the following quire.

Binding

Early 16th-century(?) stamped leather binding in the style commonly attributed to the the van Gavere family of binders of Ghent. Originally sewn at four sewing-stations (double cords or split straps?); bound in brown leather over bevelled wood boards; each cover with a rectangular blind-stamped panel surrounded by framing fillets and consisting of two narrow vertical rectangles, separated by a zig-zag design with three-petal flowers in the interstices, each rectangle containing four angels facing inwards, blowing trumpets, within foliate scrolls with bunches of grapes, all surrounded by the text 'veni.creator.spi(ri)t(u)s | mentes tuorum visita imple | :superna:gracia: | que tu creasti pectora' (Chevalier 21204) starting at the top left, in gothic letters, with floral designs at each corner, and a palmette motif separating each word on the left and right sides; the spine with simple horizontal lines in the top and bottom compartments; two pairs of brass clasp fittings at the fore-edge (fastening from bottom to top), traces of the leather straps remaining; with original pastedowns, the lower pastedown ruled as for the main textblock. Resewn on four straps (visible between fols. 131 & 132), without endbands; rebacked, with the earlier spine leather relaid; modern laid paper flyleaves, that at the back with part of a watermark: 'Ch[...]' in English 'black-letter' style. The upper pastedown has a stub before fol. i, in the gutter fold of which one can see the original sewing-stations, which correspond approximately to the present sewing; that the book has been re-sewn, however, is shown by the fact that this stub, in its present position, would have prevented the offset of the 'KL' monogram on fol. 1r onto the upper right corner of the pastedown, so the stub must originally have been hooked around the first quire; in addition the singletons appear to be sewn on modern laid paper guards.

The binding has been noticed by Duff and Prideaux, and mentioned by Gibson; the binding panel is apparently identical with one represented by a rubbing in the Victoria and Albert Museum, described in Weale, Bookbindings in the National Art Library, II, 181 no. 370 ('Flanders. Ghent. Van Gavere'); and one until 1914 in the Louvain Universitaatsbibliothek, on a printed book of 1520, described and illustrated in L. Indestege, 'Paneelstempels met musicerende engelen op Vlaamse boekbanden uit de late Middeleeuwen', in Dr. L. Reypens-Album: opstellen aangeboden aan Prof. Dr. L. Reypens s. j. ter gelegenheid van zijn tachigste veraardag op 26 februari 1964 ed. Albert Ampe (Antwerp, 1964), 173–85, at 182–3 'Type VIII', afb. 8. Through the kindness of Dr. Rowan Watson a photocopy of the V&A rubbing is available at the Bodleian.

Acquisition

Given to the Bodleian by his widow, Mrs. E. O. Buchanan, in 1941.

Provenance

Made for the Bridgettine nunnery of Mariënwater, at 's Hertogenbosch (founded 1434): the calendar is of Liège (having four feasts of Lambert as well as other Liège saints), and Bridgettine (having three feasts of Bridget, all highly graded); the only Bridgettine house in the diocese of Liège was Mariënwater (about which see Tore Nyberg, Birgittinische Klostergründungen des Mittelalters (Bibliotheca Historica Lundensis, 15: Lund, 1965), esp. ch. V, 'Die Niederlande').

Unidentified 18th/19th-century owner: inscribed in black ink in the top left corner of the upper pastedown 'No. 12.' (the same hand wrote 'No. 19.' in the same place in London, BL, Egerton MS. 3271; and 'No. 31.' in Bodleian, MS. Lat. liturg. e. 4, on both of which see below).

D.-C. (Dirk Cornelius) and J.-J. (Jan Jacob) van Voorst, Amsterdam, before 1859: almost certainly the manuscript described as lot 113 in the auction catalogue of the books and manuscripts of D.-C. and J.-J. van Voorst, sold in Amsterdam by Frederik Muller, 27 Jan. 1859, lot 113. The catalogue states (p. 13) that the Books of Hours, lots 111–141, '... proviennent pour une grande partie du monastère de Brigittines S. Marien water près de Bois-le-Duc [i.e. 's Hertogenbosch], fondé en 1434'; the brief description of lot 113 is close to the present manuscript in its reported date, contents, size, number of leaves, type of decoration, and binding. Three other Bridgettine Breviaries from Mariënwater, lots 111, 122, and 126 in this sale, are now Washington, D.C., Library of Congress, MS. 30; Paris, BnF, ms. n.a.l. 688; and London, BL, Egerton MS. 3271; lot 124 was resold in London at Sotheby's, 1 December 1987, lot 38, and is now Schoyen Collection, London and Oslo, MS. 39; and lot 140, another Bridgettine MS., is now Bodleian, MS. Lat. liturg. e. 4.

M. A. van der Linde, before 1864: in the auction catalogue of his library, sold in Brussels by G.-A. van Trigt, 7–16 April, 1864, lot 202 [I am grateful to Ulla Sander Olsen for this reference].

Unidentified 19th-century continental owner(s) and/or bookseller(s); inscribed in pencil, above the centre of the upper pastedown: 'XIVe Scle' (presumably this owner did not know that the book came from Mariënwater, or else did not know that the house was founded in the 15th century); the upper pastedown inscribed in pencil '280' (? - the final digit obscured by the remains of a pasted-in piece of paper, now removed); the lower pastedown inscribed in pencil: 'me.-' in the upper right corner, and '72..f' (perhaps a price in francs) below this.

Raguin, bookseller, Paris (see Introduction); the lower pastedown inscribed in pencil: 'bms. ok' in the upper left corner.

Rt. Hon. T. R. Buchanan (1846–1911), probably acquired after 1874, but before 1891 (when it was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club)