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Walters Ms. W.239, Book of HoursBrowse images (Browse images in a new window) | TEI in XML format
Abstract
This Book of Hours of ca. 1430-45 was illuminated by the followers of the Masters of the Gold Scrolls under North Netherlandish influence, suggesting an origin in Bruges. The manuscript, which is partially misbound, is decorated with thirteen extant miniatures (ten full-page, inserted), three historiated initials, and drolleries. In addition to a diverse collection of South Netherlandish, North French, and occasional English saints, this manuscript also features suffrages (namely SS. Margaret, Sebastian, and Anthony) that were added early. The manuscript has traces of different hands and artists throughout: in addition to mismatched borders, where the same design has been painted by different hands, there is also the unusual presence of an artistâs stamp visible in the form of a circle of thistles, which is found on the inside edge of the miniatures. An added frontispiece miniature featuring an armorial shield with an ostrich-plumed helmet crest seemingly attributes the manuscript to a younger son of the de Mailly branch of the Mametz family in Picardy (identified by Michel Pastoureau).
Artist
Supplied name: Master of the Gold Scrolls and followers
Language:
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Support material
Parchment
Highly prepared parchment of medium weight and average selection; flyleaves of modern parchment
Extent
Foliation: i+131+i
Earlier pencil foliation, partially erased, lower right corners rectos; modern pencil foliation upper right corners rectos (used here)
Collation
Formula: Quire 1: 6 (fols. 1-6); Quire 2: 4, with first and sixth folios added (fols. 7-12); Quire 3: 8 with ninth folio added (fols. 13-21); Quires 4-5: 8 (fols. 22-37); Quire 6: 6 (fols. 38-43); Quire 7: 8, with sixth folio added (fols. 44-52); Quire 8: 8 with second, seventh, and tenth folios added and a folio cancelled (fols. 53-64); Quire 9: 8, with third folio added (fols. (65-73); Quire 10: 4 (fols. 74-77); Quire 11: 6, with first folio added (fols. 78-84); Quire 12: 8, with first folio added (fols. 85-93); Quire 13: 6, with seventh folio tipped in (fols. 94-100); Quire 14: 8, with first folio added (fols. 101-109); Quires 15-16: 8 (fols. 110-125); Quire 17: 6 (fols. 126-131)
Catchwords: None
Signatures: None
Comments: Most miniatures inserted; quire 2 was originally a quire of four folios with two folios added, resulting in a quire of six folios; quires 4-5 are misbound (see Mass of the Virgin for details); quire 8 has an added bifolium as well as two tipped in images
Dimensions
12.3 cm wide by 16.7 cm high
Written surface
6.0 cm wide by 9.0 cm high
Layout
Contents:
fols. 1r - 131v:Decoration:
fol. 7v:
fol. 8r:
fol. 9v:
fol. 11r:
fol. 13v:
fol. 49v:
fol. 54v:
fol. 59v:
fol. 63v:
fol. 67v:
fol. 78v:
fol. 85v:
fol. 101v:
Binding
The binding is not original.
Early nineteenth-century French red leather binding; gold tooling with foliate and floral designs on boards and spine; similar to binding signed Gaudreau, although no signature is present; gilded title on spine reads "Officium M. S."; page edges are gilded
Provenance
Created ca. 1430-45; illuminated by followers of the Masters of the Gold Scrolls, North Netherlandish influence, which suggests Bruges
De Mailly branch of the Mametz family of Picardy (?), mid-to-late fifteenth century, suggested by an armorial shield (fol. 7v)
Rev. Henry White, Litchfield, second half of the nineteenth century; added entry by White (?) of "MCCCL"
Sold in Rev. White's sale London, Sotheby's, April 21, 1902, to D. Robson, London bookseller
Sotheby's, London, resold on May 6, 1909, to Robson
Gruel and Engelmann, Paris, between 1909 and 1931, their bookplate inscribed with "No=957" on front pastedown, sale slip formerly affixed to back flyleaf i
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel before 1931
Acquisition
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Bibliography
De Ricci, Seymour, and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935; p. 790, cat. no. 209.
Farquhar, James Douglas. "Identity in an Anonymous Age: Bruges Manuscript Illuminators and Their Signs," Viator II (1980): pp. 380, 382, fig. 10.
Dogaer, Georges. Flemish Miniature Painting in the 15th and 16th Centuries. Amsterdam: B. M. Israël, 1987; p. 31.
Farquhar, James Douglas. "Manuscript Production and Evidence for Localizing and Dating Fifteenth-Century Books of Hours: Walters MS 239." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 45 (1987): passim, figs. 1-17.
Gifford, E. M. "Pattern and Style in a Flemish Book of Hours: Walters MS 239." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 45 (1987): passim.
Christie's. New York, December 7, 1988; ref. under lot 23.
Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. Exhibition Catalogue, the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. New York: George Braiziller, 1988; pp. 30, 125, 211, cat. no. 87, fig. 110.
Smeyers, Maurits, and B. Cardon. "Utrecht and Bruges: South and North 'Boundless Relations' in the 15th Century." In Masters and Miniatures (1989); p. 101.
Smeyers, Maurits. "Pre-Eyckian Manuscripts: Mass Production and Workshop Practices I." In Le dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture, ed. R. van Schoute and H. Verougstraete-Marcq. Université Catholique de Louvain, Institut Supérieur d'Archéologie et d'Histoire de l'Art, Colloque IX (September 12-14, 1991), Document de travail 27; pp. 59-74.
Alexander, J. J. G. Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work. New Haven: 1992; p. 174.
Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 2, France, 1420-1540. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1992; p. 273 (ref. under cat. no. 157, W. 252).
Rogers, N. J. "The Miniature of St. John the Baptist in Gonville and Caius MS 241/127 and Its Context." Fifteenth Century Flemish Manuscripts. Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 10.2 (1992): p. 128.
Wieck, Roger S. âThe Death Desired: Books of Hours and the Medieval Funeral.â In Death and Dying in the Middle Ages. Edited by Edelgard E. DuBruck and Barbara I. Gusick, 431-476. New York: Peter Lang, 1999; pp. 437 (as fig. 8), 446 (n. 9), 456 (fig. 8).
Van Bergen, Saskia. âThe Production of Flemish Books of Hours for the English Market.â In Manuscripts in Transition: Recycling Manuscripts, Texts, and Images. Proceedings of the International Congres held in Brussels (5-9 November 2002). Edited by Brigitte Dekeyzer and Jan van der Stock, 271-284. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2005; p. 282.
Luyster, Amanda. âTwo Books of Hours: The Gold Scrolls Group, England, and Internationalism in the Fifteenth Century.â In Catholic Collecting: Catholic Reflections (1538-1850). Exhibition Catalogue, College of the Holy Cross and the Cantor Art Gallery, February 22-April 13, 2006. Edited by Virginia C. Raguin, 89-101. Worcester, MA: Trustees of the College of the Holy Cross, 2006; p. 95.
Vanwijnsberghe, Dominique. "Le cycle d'enfance des petites de la vierge dans les livres d'heures des pays-bas méridionaux." In Manuscripten en miniaturen: Studies aangeboden aan Anne S. Korteweg bij haar afscheid van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Boekhandel. Nieuwe Reeks (8). Edited by Jos Biemans, Klaas van der Hoek, Kathryn M. Rudy, and Ed van der Vlist, 355-366. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2007; p. 362.
Yoshikawa, Naoë Kukita. Margery Kempe's Meditations: The Context of Medieval Devotional Literature, Liturgy, and Iconography. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007; p. 162 (n. 57).
Ubl, Matthias. "'The Office of the Dead': a New Interpretation of the Spes Nostra Painting." The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 61 (2013): pp. 323-337.
Contributors
Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.
Cataloger: Herbold, Rebekah
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Wallace, Susan
Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail
Contributors: Emery, Doug; Herbold, Rebekah; Noel, William; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Wiegand, Kimber
Publisher
The Walters Art Museum
License
Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.
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