The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This Book of Hours was created by the artists known as the Ghent Associates ca. 1490-1500. The manuscript appears to have been originally made for Philip the Handsome, also known as Philip the Fair (1478-1506), duke of Austria, Brabant, and Burgundy, and count of Flanders and Hainaut. Although there are no longer extant miniatures, many of the fifty-one decorated illuminated initials contain images that refer to its prominent owner. Most notably, Philip's heraldry is found on fol. 91r, and some of the many jewels depicted throughout the initials can be traced to jewelry worn by women in his family in portraits, such as his mother, Mary of Burgundy, and his wife, Joanna of Castille (see Randall p. 464 for details). As there are a large number of decorated initials, only those with known special significance have been cataloged here.
Decorated initials fols. 14r, 16r, 17r, 19r, 20r, and 23r
Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Wallace, Susan
Contributor: Bucca, Lauren
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
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. 806, cat. no. 310.
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Greek tradition in painting and the minor arts: an exhibition sponsored jointly by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Gallery from May 15 through June 25, 1939. Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1939, p. 80, cat. no. 106.
Alexander, J. J. G. The Master of Mary of Burgundy: A Book of Hours for Engelbert of Nassau. Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1970; pp. 9-10.
Bowles, E. A., "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery," Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, 1976, pp. 722-23.
Owens, M. B., "Musical Subjects in the Illumination of Books of Hours from Fifteenth-Century France and Flanders", Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1987, p. 479.
Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, Belgium, 1250-1530. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 459-65, cat. no. 286.
Holford-Strevens, Leofranc. “Sirens in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.” In Music of the Sirens. Edited by Linda Austern and Inna Naroitskaya, 16-51. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006; p. 50 (n. 125 for p. 36).
Wijsman, Hanno. “Philippe le Beau dans les livres: Un 'gran oublié’ de l’histoire.” In Books in Transition at the Time of Philip the Fair: Manuscripts and Printed Books in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century Low Countries. Edited by Henri Willem Wijsman, Ann Kelders, and Susie Speakman Sutch, 17-92. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010; p. 45.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Ghent (?)
Ca. 1490-1500 CE
book
Original Binding
Bound in Flanders (Ghent?) ca. fifteenth-sixteenth century and repaired ca. 1900; brown leather over wood boards; sewn on five single bands, rehitched at beginning and end by rebacker; upper and lower boards decorated with four blind-tooled panels depicting angels playing instruments (horn, triangle drum, lute, portative organ, harp) within spiraling vines, a design connected with the Gavere family of binders (see W.170 and W.439 for related); inscription around border is from Psalm 137.1, and reads (beginning in the upper left corner and going clockwise): "In conspectu angelorum psallam tibi domine et adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum et confitebor nomini tuo"; spine rounded and backed, with modern endbands in pink and green silk; edges gilded and gauffered with pairs of fillets forming large diamonds with centered rosettes formed of six dots around a central dot (Randall sees this, but it is difficult to make out); traces of clasps with five rivets are visible on edges of boards; brass studs on cover are probably modern; modern leather fore-edge tabs mark illuminations
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin. The secondary language of this manuscript is French, Middle (ca.1400-1600).
Created ca. 1490s, likely in Ghent, with art by a member of the Ghent Associates
Philip the Handsome
Discalced Carmelite monastery, inscription ca. 1700 in brown ink on fol. 1: "Sr: Prats"
Owned by the Abbey of la Bussière-sur-Ouche
Gautier d'Albrard, France, ca. 1800; passed down to his son-in-law Baron Zangiacomi, who passed it down to his son-in-law, Baron Lacave La Plagne of La Plagne
Léon Gruel, French
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel in 1923 for $1,040
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
Ghent (?)
Ca. 1490-1500 CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin. The secondary language of this manuscript is French, Middle (ca.1400-1600).
Created ca. 1490s, likely in Ghent, with art by a member of the Ghent Associates
Philip the Handsome
Discalced Carmelite monastery, inscription ca. 1700 in brown ink on fol. 1: "Sr: Prats"
Owned by the Abbey of la Bussière-sur-Ouche
Gautier d'Albrard, France, ca. 1800; passed down to his son-in-law Baron Zangiacomi, who passed it down to his son-in-law, Baron Lacave La Plagne of La Plagne
Léon Gruel, French
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel in 1923 for $1,040
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest
This Book of Hours was created by the artists known as the Ghent Associates ca. 1490-1500. The manuscript appears to have been originally made for Philip the Handsome, also known as Philip the Fair (1478-1506), duke of Austria, Brabant, and Burgundy, and count of Flanders and Hainaut. Although there are no longer extant miniatures, many of the fifty-one decorated illuminated initials contain images that refer to its prominent owner. Most notably, Philip's heraldry is found on fol. 91r, and some of the many jewels depicted throughout the initials can be traced to jewelry worn by women in his family in portraits, such as his mother, Mary of Burgundy, and his wife, Joanna of Castille (see Randall p. 464 for details). As there are a large number of decorated initials, only those with known special significance have been cataloged here.
Decorated initials fols. 14r, 16r, 17r, 19r, 20r, and 23r
Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Wallace, Susan
Contributor: Bucca, Lauren
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber
Conservator: Owen, Linda
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
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. 806, cat. no. 310.
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Greek tradition in painting and the minor arts: an exhibition sponsored jointly by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Gallery from May 15 through June 25, 1939. Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1939, p. 80, cat. no. 106.
Alexander, J. J. G. The Master of Mary of Burgundy: A Book of Hours for Engelbert of Nassau. Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1970; pp. 9-10.
Bowles, E. A., "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery," Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, 1976, pp. 722-23.
Owens, M. B., "Musical Subjects in the Illumination of Books of Hours from Fifteenth-Century France and Flanders", Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1987, p. 479.
Randall, Lilian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, Belgium, 1250-1530. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 459-65, cat. no. 286.
Holford-Strevens, Leofranc. “Sirens in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.” In Music of the Sirens. Edited by Linda Austern and Inna Naroitskaya, 16-51. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006; p. 50 (n. 125 for p. 36).
Wijsman, Hanno. “Philippe le Beau dans les livres: Un 'gran oublié’ de l’histoire.” In Books in Transition at the Time of Philip the Fair: Manuscripts and Printed Books in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century Low Countries. Edited by Henri Willem Wijsman, Ann Kelders, and Susie Speakman Sutch, 17-92. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010; p. 45.
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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