File:Hours of the Virgin, Use of Rome (IA 1967 30 120).pdf

Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, 1967‑30‑120. France, Late 15th century. This manuscript is a Book of Hours made in northern France for the Use of Rome in the late-fifteenth century. It contains a Suffrage to Saint Sebastian added in a later hand prior to the beginning of the manuscript proper, a calendar in French (fols. 1r-12v), Gospel Lessons with large miniatures of the Evangelists (fols. 13r-20v), the Obsecro te (fols. 21r-25r), the O intemerata (fols. 25v-28v), the Hours of the Virgin (fols. 29r-97v), the Hours of the Cross (fols. 98r-101v), the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fols. 102r-105v), an Accessory prayer in Italian in a later humanist hand (fols. 106r-106v), the Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers (fols. 107r-122v), the Office of the Dead (fols. 123r-171v), and the Mass of the Virgin added in a nearly contemporary rotunda script (fols. 172r-177v). Seventeen large miniatures plus an historiated initial for Lauds (fol. 50r), surrounded by foliate borders containing animal and human drolleries mark the divisions between these texts. The subjects depicted are Saint John (fol. 13r), Saint Luke (fol. 15r), Saint Matthew (fol. 17r) and Saint Mark (fol. 19r), along with the Virgin and Child (fol. 21r), the Lamentation (fol. 25v), the Annunciation (fol. 29r), the Nativity (fol. 63r), the Annunciation to the Shepherds (fol. 69r), the Adoration of the Magi (fol. 74r), the Presentation in the Temple (fol. 79r), the Flight into Egypt (fol. 85r), the Coronation of the Virgin (fol. 93r), the Crucifixion (fol. 98r), Pentecost (fol. 102r), David and Bathsheba (fol. 107r), and the Three Living and The Three Dead (fol. 123r). The miniatures, though damaged by moisture and abrasion, show a sensitive palette and an eye for anecdotal details. Various features point to an earlier Italian ownership of this Book of Hours.