The Book of Hours of Marguerite of Orléans (Part 2)

This is the second set of images from one of the finest Books of Hours in the vast collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Département des Manuscrits, Latin 1156B), made around 1430 for a noblewoman named Marguerite of Orleans (1406-66).  The first set was published on Thursday, and contained an example of the calendar pages, the images accompanying the Little Office of the Virgin Mary, and the Hours of the Cross. Here we resume with the Hours of the Holy Spirit, a devotional office in which each Hour consists solely of a brief hymn, an antiphon, a versicle and a prayer. This particular group of images is especially beautiful; the one before Matins and Lauds is lost, and so it starts with Prime, with an image of the Lord’s Ascension.

At Terce, most appropriately, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

At Sext, St Peter preaching on the first Pentecost, as described in Acts 2.

At None, the baptism of 3,000 people, also from Acts 2.

Before Vespers, the general resurrection at the end of the world.

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The Book of Hours of Marguerite of Orléans (Part 1)

A good way to start the Marian month of October is by enjoying this particularly glorious Book of Hours, since the principal text in any such book is always the Little Office of the Virgin Mary. This particular example was made around 1430 for Marguerite, a daughter of Louis I, duke of Orleans, born in 1406, who was countess of Vertus and Etampes from 1420 until her death in 1466. The repertoire of sacred images is not especially large, but the ones it does have are very richly detailed, and the floral borders which are found on every page of very intricate and beautiful. (Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 1156B)

It begins, as most Books of Hours do, with a calendar. Every day has an entry, but many of the Saints were not kept liturgically, and in any case, none of them were mentioned in the Little Office itself. The most important feasts are written in gold letter, and here we see the name of St Denys on October 9th, but no other indication of liturgical rank is given.

The second part of the calendar for October.

Many books of Hours included a group of four Gospels, one from each of the Evangelists: John 1, 1-14, the Gospel of Christmas day; Luke 1, 26-38, the Annunciation; Matthew 2, 1-12, the Epiphany; and Mark 16, 14-20, the Ascension. Here we see St John on the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse, with his eagle next to him.

In this particular case, the folios which contained the latter part of this Gospel, the image of St Luke, and the beginning of the Gospel of the Annunciation are now missing. (A few other illustrated pages elsewhere are also missing.) Here we see St Matthew with the angel...

and St Mark with his lion.

Most books of Hours also include two fairly long prayers to the Virgin, known from their incipits as Intemerata and Obsecro te.

At the beginning of the second prayer, Marguerite of Orléans is depicted kneeling in prayer before the Virgin and Child.

The most common arrangement in Books of Hours of this period is for each Hour of the Little Office to be introduced with an image of an episode of the Virgin’s life. The repertoire of these is not absolutely fixed, but the set we see here is the common standard. Before Matins, the Annunciation; the Office is said according to the Use of Rome, in which the invitatory is the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary, “Ave, Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum.”

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The Hours of Boussu (Part 1)

Here is yet another magnificent book of Hours from the endless treasure trove that is the Bibliothèque nationale de France, known as the Hours of Isabelle de Lalaing, the noble lady for whom it was made sometime after 1490. It is also called the Hours of Boussu, the town in the county of Hainaut (in modern Belgium) of which her family were the lords; the anonymous artist is known as the master of Antoine Rolin. As with everything on the BnF website, the manuscript can be downloaded as a pdf for free. Here is a selection of images which includes all the large pictures, and some examples of the many different kinds of decoration. This first part goes up to the end of the Little Office of the Virgin, the heart of any books of Hours. A second post will include the other features that come after it, such as the Offices of the Passion and of the Dead.

This book is one of the most richly decorated examples of its genre; literally every page that does not have a sacred picture or more elaborate border has a rectangular section like the ones seen here on the two pages for the calendar in April, filled with birds, sometimes other animals, insects (mostly butterflies), and an extraordinary variety of flowers. A great deal of blank space is left on the pages, which is also a sign of the wealth of the person commissioning the book.

The Virgin Mary kneeling before the Three Persons of the Trinity, with an angel holding a banderole saying, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

The Lord’s Prayer

The Stabat Mater, which here, unusually, has a decorative border with angels, rather than an image of the Virgin standing by the Cross.

In addition to the floral and animal motifs in the borders, there are a fair number of pictures related to the prayers at their beginnings, such as this one to the Virgin Mary.

Many books of Hours included a group of four Gospels, one from each of the Evangelists: John 1, 1-14, the Gospel of Christmas day; Luke 1, 26-38, the Annunciation; Matthew 2, 1-12, the Epiphany; and Mark 16, 14-20, the Ascension. Here we see St John on the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse...

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The Hours of Charles of Angoulême (Part 2): The Passion Cycle and Calendar

This is the second set of images from a particularly high quality book of Hours made for Charles, count of the French city of Angoulême (1459-96), and father of King Francis I (r. 1515-47). (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lat. 1173); the first part was published on Monday. Just under half of the volume, folios 59-115, is taken up with a very long series of prayers and meditations on the Passion, in both Latin and French, interspersed with twelve images that show episodes from the washing of the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper to the supper at Emmaus. These were originally created as engravings by a German printmaker named Israhel van Meckenem, which were then colored in by the main artist, Robinet Testard (fl. 1470 - 1519). Below them I include the twelve pages of the calendar.

As is typical of the late Gothic period, Meckenem’s images are quite complicated, with a lot of figures in a fairly limited amount of space, and very often more than one episode squeezed into the background. Here we see Christ washing St Peter’s feet in the foreground, with the Last Supper inside the building on the right, and in the upper left, the agony in the garden, with the crowd of soldiers entering the garden through the gate. (If you click the image to enlarge it, you can see that the figure of St John in front of the Lord at the table is very imperfectly drawn as the result of trying to compress too many figures into too small a space.)

The kiss of Judas and the arrest of Christ, with St Peter attacking the high priest’s servant at the lower left.

Christ appears before Pilate, who is dressed more or less as a typical urban magistrate of the period; at the lower left, a soldier is seen grabbing St Peter’s collar, as the serving girl looks on, and at the upper left, we see the soldiers mocking the Lord.

The flagellation, and at the upper left, Christ before Herod.

The crowning with thorns, and at the upper left, the soldiers hitting the Lord.

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The Hours of Charles of Angoulême (Part 1)

Here is another wonderful discovery from the endless treasure trove of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, a book of Hours made for one Charles, count of the French city of Angoulême (1459-96), and the father of King Francis I (r. 1515-47). (BnF Lat. 1173) The book contains a large number of full- and half-page images of extremely high quality, most of which are attributed to an artist named Robinet Testard (fl. 1470 - 1519). It also includes several engravings reproduced from works by a German printmaker, Israhel van Meckenem, which were colored in by Testard; these include a series of 12 images of the Passion, which I will post separately.

By the later 15th century, Books of Hours almost always included a set of four Gospel readings, one from each evangelist: John 1, 1-14, from the day Mass of Christmas; Luke 1, 26-38, from the feast of the Annunciation; Matthew 2, 1-12 from Epiphany; and Mark 16, 14-20 from the Ascension. Very often, each is introduced by its own picture of the corresponding evangelist, but here, they are all represented in one image by their traditional symbols, which surround Our Lord. Between them are the original four doctors of the Latin Church, and in the corners, the major prophets.

At the beginning of the Office of Our Lady is this image of the Annunciation. Note the arms of the kings of France on the reading desk, and on the altar, an image of Moses with the tablets of the Law.

The first page of the Office, with Our Lady dressed in blue and holding a prayer book, within the decorative initial.

A decorative page at the end of Lauds.

Books of Hours also routinely include two very brief Offices after that of the Virgin, one of the Cross, and another of the Holy Spirit. The former is introduced by this image of Our Lord as a child holding the Cross...

and the latter by this image of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, set within a church; only eight of the twelve Apostles are included, so as to not make the space too crowded. (One of them is clearly identifiable as St James the Elder from his pilgrim hat.)

Matins of the Holy Spirit, with this beautiful image of the dove, and banderoles chained together with strings of beads, with several liturgical texts from Pentecost written on them.

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A 15th Century Book of Hours

Since there are two Marian feasts today, Our Lady of Ransom, the patronal feast of the Mercedarian order on the general calendar, and Our Lady of Walsingham, the patronal feast of the Anglican Use Ordinariates, I thought it would be good day to enjoy pictures of a Book of Hours, in which the Little Office of the Virgin is central liturgical text. This example comes from one of my favorite websites, that of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Département des manuscrits. NAL 183), which however provides no information about it other than the fact that it was made in 15th century. (From the style of the pictures, I’d guess much closer to the end of the century than the beginning.) You can click each image to enlarge it.

The 1st part of calendar page for the month of September; each month has the sign of the zodiac that begins within it (Libra in this case), and the representation of an agricultural or domestic labor typical of that month (trodding the winepress here) at the bottom. Literally every page of this book has decorative borders like the two floral sections here, many of which also include birds and other animals (some real, some imaginary); the two seen here are typical of the rest of the book.

The rest of September. Books of Hours often have a Saint noted on every single day of the calendar, even though they were not all celebrated liturgically. The more important are written in gold letters, as here, Ss Matthew the Evangelist and Michael the Archangel.

Books of Hours commonly include a group of four Gospels, one from each of the Evangelists: John 1, 1-14, the Gospel of Christmas day; Luke 1, 26-38, the Annunciation; Matthew 2, 1-12, the Epiphany; and Mark 16, 14-20, the Ascension. This image introduces the Gospel from St John, who is shown in his exile on the island of Patmos.

The beginning of his gospel.

St Luke

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New Printing of the Pre-55 Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

A splendid announcement to make in Our Lady's Month of May, and on this day dedicated to the Fatima apparitions!

Roman-Seraphic Books has created a new edition of the Traditional Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in accordance with the rubrics of the St. Pius X 1910 reform. This edition seeks not only to preserve but to rejuvenate a venerable form of prayer that has been the Marian Prayer par excellence of the Mystical Body for many centuries.

Featuring Gregorian Chant notation for each hymn, this edition facilitates common and public recitation. The chant notation is rendered with the usual Solesmes markings, allowing both the seasoned choir and the novice chanter to partake in this beautiful offering of praise to the Mother of God.

Accompanying the text are exquisite illustrations for each canonical hour, inviting the faithful into a visual meditation on the mysteries of Our Lady’s participation in the Passion of Our Lord, and the Mysteries associated with each Hour.

For more information and to order, visit this website.