Book of Hours, in Middle Dutch, Netherlandish, 15th century, second quarter

Title

Book of Hours, in Middle Dutch, Netherlandish, 15th century, second quarter

Shelfmark

MS. Buchanan f. 3

Place of origin

Netherlandish

Netherlandish, diocese of Utrecht (?), for use in the diocese of Cologne (?)

Date

15th century, second quarter

14th century

Language

Middle Dutch (ca. 1050-1350)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment.

Physical extent

ii (14th-century parchment bifolium) + 214 + 1 (modern paper).The decoration cropped in the upper and fore-edge margins.

Hands

Written in gothic bookhand, by two main scribes, responsible for (i) 17r-185v, and (ii) 187r-215v; the calendar appears to be by the second of these, or a third scribe.

Decoration

Headings in red, capitals and some abbreviations touched in red.

Six (of an original thirteen?) full-page miniatures, in the general style of the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht (on which see James H. Marrow, et al., The golden age of Dutch manuscript painting (New York, 1990), 14 and cat. nos. 21–5), less fine than the historiated initial, smaller than the text-area, each on a gold ground, framed by coloured and gold lines and with sketchy black penwork and gold dots in the margins; on inserted single leaves, blank on the recto; several cut out, leaving stubs: [Hours of the Virgin, Matins and Lauds: miniatures missing, leaving stubs before fols. 17 & 28 respectively.] (fol. 40v) Prime. Betrayal of Christ; Malchus's Ear. (fol. 46v) Terce. Christ before Pilate. [Sext miniature missing, leaving a stub before fol. 51.] (fol. 55v) None. Christ Carrying the Cross. (fol. 60v) Vespers. Deposition; Joseph of Arimathaea supporting Christ's body. [Compline miniature missing, leaving a stub before fol. 69.] [Hours of the Cross miniature missing, leaving a stub before fol. 75.] (fol. 81v) Penitential Psalms. Last Judgement; a lily and a sword either side of Christ's head; figures rising from graves. (fol. 104v) Daily Hours. Pentecost. [Office of the Dead miniature missing, leaving a stub before fol. 153.] [Seven Last Words miniature missing, leaving a stub before fol. 187, and an offset on fol. 187r.] There is no sign of the small ink stamps sometimes found on inserted leaves painted in this style (see James Douglas Farquhar, 'Identity in an anonymous age: Bruges manuscript illuminators and their signs', Viator 11 (1980), 371–83, figs. 1–12). One seven-line historiated initial on a gold ground, the margins of the page with a foliate and floral border in colours and gold on all four sides, overlaid on three intersecting gold fillets, one in each of the outer margins: (fol. 17r) Hours of the Virgin, Matins. Virgin and Child, the Virgin crowned, half-length; damaged by abrasion. Five-line initials in gold on a cusped square 'quartered' ground in pink and blue, with white tracery, with a painted and gilt bar-border in the outer margin, a gold fillet in the upper and lower margins, and gold and painted foliage and flowers in all four margins, at the start of the Hours of the Cross (fol. 75r), the Penitential Psalms (fol. 82r), the first of the Daily Offices (fol. 105r), and the Office of the Dead (fol. 153r); similar initials, but without the gold fillets, and with simpler foliage ornament, to the other Daily Offices (fols. 116v, 125v, etc.); similar four-line initials with a bar border the height of the text area, sprouting foliage into the upper and lower margins at the start of each canonical hour except Matins in the Hours of the Virgin (fols. 28r, 41r, etc.); similar three-line initials and borders at each canonical hour except Matins in the Hours of the Cross (fols. 76v, 77v, etc.); similar three-line initials without borders, but with a simple daisy-like design in the margin alongside at each hour of the Daily Offices except Matins (fols. 106v, 108v, etc.); one five-line penwork initial in blue with reserved designs containing and surrounded by penwork in red ink, partially filled-in with green wash (fol. 187r: the start of the section by the third scribe); plain two-line initials, alternately red or blue, to psalms, hymns, lessons, etc.; plain one-line initials, alternately red or blue, to verses and other minor textual divisions. Comparable border decoration can be found in manuscripts with illumination in the style the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg, e.g. Utrecht, University Library, MS. 1037 (2.E.19), illustrated in van der Horst, University Library, Utrecht, cat., no. 37, col. pl. F, figs. 155–8. Addendum, 12 April 2000. Dr. Anne Korteweg kindly informs me that the text pages have what is called 'multicoloured leaves' decoration (see Kriezels, no. 7 and fig. on p. 36), and that the inserted miniatures are by a Utrecht master known as the Bible Master of the First Generation, a coarse follower of the Gethsemane Master (the latter named after a miniature in a Bible, The Hague, Royal Library, 78 D 38, although he and his followers worked mostly in books of hours).

Binding

Contemporary sewing and blind-stamped binding. Sewn on four split tawed straps, with cord endbands; bound in brown leather over bevelled wood boards: the four straps regularly spaced, and laced and pegged into staggered horizontal channels (the first and third longer than the second and fourth in both boards), the endbands secured in channels angled at about 45 degrees; each cover with a large central blind-stamped panel (that on the lower board very indistinct) representing the Man of Sorrows, standing in his tomb, surrounded by the Instruments of the Passion, enframed by the legend: 'O v[os om]nes qui transitis | per viam attendite | et : videt[e] si est [dolor similis] | sicut dolor m[eus]' (Lamentations 1:12) in gothic letters, starting at the lower left corner; framed by roll-tooled foliate scrollwork (using two different rolls) within blind fillets; the spine with four pronounced raised bands, the leather of the spine folded and stitched over the endbands; the top compartment inscribed in black ink '470' (cf. under Provenance) the fore-edges of both boards with marks from two pairs of metal clasp fittings, each with three nail-holes, parts of some of which are still visible on the inner face of the boards, which have been crudely gouged-out at these points; repaired, especially at the joints and corners, the leather of the upper joint weak, but the straps sound; with a bifolium of a breviary used as upper pastedown (now lifted) and endleaf (fols. 1–2); a similar pastedown (and endleaf?) are presumably missing at the end (see the note above). The panel stamps are similar to, but not the same as, those in Weale, Bookbindings in the National Art Library, II, 186–7 nos. 387–8, each of which he describes as a Netherlandish 'Image of Pity' stamp, and are rubbings taken from manuscript Books of Hours in Dutch.

Acquisition

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

Provenance

Made for an unidentified Dutch-speaking patron, perhaps living in or near Cologne (possibly an exile during the Utrecht Schism of 1423–50): the decoration and the litany suggest that the main texts of the book were made in the diocese of Utrecht, while the calendar (on a separate quire, as usual, and by a different scribe; but also in Dutch, not German or Latin) indicates that it was tailored to the needs of a client in the city or diocese of Cologne, who presumably also requested the inclusion of the non-standard devotions from fol. 187r to the end (on separate quires, perhaps by the scribe of the calendar); since one of the inserted miniatures originally faced fol. 187r, the miniatures were presumably inserted after the writing of these textual additions. Patterns of holes and rust or other marks in fols. 39–40r, 45–46r, 186–187r suggest that pilgrim badge(s) or other votive image(s) may have been pinned/sewn in at these points, i.e. blank pages preceding miniatures.

Unidentified 17th(?)-century owners: the upper cover of the binding inscribed (apparently by the hand responsible for the foliation numbers on fols. 100r, 201r, and 216r): 'i5.' or 'is.' (possibly an abbreviation of 'ihesus', who is represented below?); inscribed by another hand in the upper margin of fol. 2r: 'fautis wal val slieri' (??).

Unidentified 18th/19th-century collection(s): inscribed in the top right corner of fol. 1r: '470' in a large bold hand (crossed through in ink), and in the top compartment of the spine (cf. under Binding); there is an erased inscription before this number on fol. 1r, apparently ending with a 'p'(?), but otherwise illegible even under UV light.

Unidentified 19th-century owner: inscribed in pencil (fol. 3v): 'Cöllnischer [?] Kalender'.

Thomas Arthur, or William Ridler, London booksellers, c.1875–85: the inner face of the upper board with a clipping from one of their catalogues, affixed sideways, in which the present manuscript was item 1, priced £8 8s.; inscribed in pencil on fol. 1r with the price-code 'd/s/-' (i.e. £5 10s) in the upper left margin, and on the wood of the inner face of the upper board, towards the centre of the fore-edge, sloping upwards; a pencil inscription is largely obscured by the catalogue clipping except for the word 'Pages', '[Cen]tury'(?), and a ',' sign.

Rt. Hon. T. R. Buchanan (1846–1911), after 1874