THE DIGITAL WALTERSMENU
Manuscript Sections & Illuminated Folios

Hours of the Virgin 1r - 68v;

Illuminations (21)

  • Initial "L" with Balaam riding a donkey fol. 1r
  • Initial "T" with Paul being beheaded fol. 5v
  • Initial "D" with the martyrdom of Stephen fol. 6v
  • Initial "C" with Christ blessing fol. 16r
  • Initial "L" with Christ enthroned holding globe fol. 18v
  • Initial "E" with King David blessing fol. 20v
  • Initial "O" with woman standing among trees fol. 21r
  • Initial "E" with seated woman holding book fol. 23r
  • Initial "C" with an apostle holding a scroll fol. 25v
  • Initial "A" with a king's bust fol. 26r
  • Initial "N" with the Evangelist Mark fol. 27v
  • Initial "Q" with a Dominican monk writing on a scroll fol. 30r
  • Initial "D" with Crucifixion and kneeling female patron fol. 32r
  • Initial "D" with St. Catherine of Alexandria and a kneeling knight below fol. 37v
  • Initial "F" with Samson wrestling a lion fol. 40v
  • Initial "D" with the anointing of Christ's body before entombment fol. 42r
  • Initial "D" with John the Baptist fol. 42v
  • Initial "L" with St. Martin dividing his cloak fol. 44v
  • Initial "B" with an apostle (?) carrying a white book and cross fol. 46v
  • Initial "N" with a seated scribe writing on a scroll fol. 49r
  • Initial "L" with John the Evangelist fol. 51r

Seven penitential psalms 69r - 102v;

Illuminations (5)

  • Initial "B" with King David kneeling in prayer at an altar fol. 71r
  • Initial "D" with a seated man fol. 75r
  • Initial "D" with Mary Magdalene holding an ointment jar fol. 87v
  • Initial "D" with the martyrdom of the apostle Peter fol. 96v
  • Initial "D" with the martyrdom of John the Evangelist fol. 98v

Litany, petitions, and collects 103r - 116v;

    All Illuminations

    Illuminations (26)

    • Initial "L" with Balaam riding a donkey
    • Initial "T" with Paul being beheaded
    • Initial "D" with the martyrdom of Stephen
    • Initial "C" with Christ blessing
    • Initial "L" with Christ enthroned holding globe
    • Initial "E" with King David blessing
    • Initial "O" with woman standing among trees
    • Initial "E" with seated woman holding book
    • Initial "C" with an apostle holding a scroll
    • Initial "A" with a king's bust
    • Initial "N" with the Evangelist Mark
    • Initial "Q" with a Dominican monk writing on a scroll
    • Initial "D" with Crucifixion and kneeling female patron
    • Initial "D" with St. Catherine of Alexandria and a kneeling knight below
    • Initial "F" with Samson wrestling a lion
    • Initial "D" with the anointing of Christ's body before entombment
    • Initial "D" with John the Baptist
    • Initial "L" with St. Martin dividing his cloak
    • Initial "B" with an apostle (?) carrying a white book and cross
    • Initial "N" with a seated scribe writing on a scroll
    • Initial "L" with John the Evangelist
    • Initial "B" with King David kneeling in prayer at an altar
    • Initial "D" with a seated man
    • Initial "D" with Mary Magdalene holding an ointment jar
    • Initial "D" with the martyrdom of the apostle Peter
    • Initial "D" with the martyrdom of John the Evangelist
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    Book of Hours (incomplete)
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    ← search Book of Hours (incomplete) W.85
    Manuscript Overview
    References
    Bindings & Oddities

    Abstract

    This fragmentary Book of Hours was created in Ghent ca. 1300 for the use of a woman with Dominican ties. Although quite a bit of text and imagery is missing, including the calendar and Office of the Dead, this tiny manuscript is lavishly decorated on nearly every page with marginal drolleries and grotesques, making it a rich and charming book even in its fragmentary state.

    Hand note

    Textura quadrata

    Contributors

    Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

    Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley

    Editor: Herbert, Lynley

    Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

    Contributor: Emery, Doug

    Contributor: Noel, William

    Contributor: Schuele, Allyson

    Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel

    Contributor: Toth, Michael B.

    Contributor: Valle, Chiara

    Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber

    Conservator: Owen, Linda

    Conservator: Quandt, Abigail

    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. 782, cat. no. 160.


    Miner, D. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949; cat. no. 49, pl. XXXI.


    Randall, Lilian M.C. Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966; p. 38 and passim.


    Diringer, David. The Illuminated Book: Its History and Production. London: Faber and Faber, 1967; p. 436, pl. VII-28.


    Lane, Barbara Greenhouse. The Development of the Medieval Devotional Figure. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1971, pp.174-5, fig. 196.


    Wentersdorf, K.P. "The Symbolic Significance of Figurae Scatologicae in Gothic Manuscripts." In Word, Picture, and Spectacle, edited by C. Davidson, 1-19. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications of Western Michigan University, 1984; p. 2, fig. 3.


    Owens, M.B. "Musical Subjects in the Illumination of Books of Hours from Fifteenth-Century France and Flanders." Ph.D. diss, University of Chicago, 1987: p. 365.


    London, Sotheby's, 21 June 1988. Referenced under lot 73.


    Wieck, Roger S., L.R. Poos, V. Reinburg, and J. Plummer. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life, exhibition catalogue of the Walters Art Gallery. New York: George Braziller, 1988; pp. 69, 71, 207, cat. no. 78, fig. 49.


    London, Sotheby's, 18 June, 1991. Referenced under lot 155.


    Lewis, Suzanne. Beyond the Frame: Marginal Figures and Historiated Initials in the Getty Apocalypse. The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 20 (1992): 53-76; p. 75-76 (n. 16 for p. 63).


    Epstein, Marc Michael. Dreams of Subversion in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997; p. 128.


    Hunt, Elizabeth Moore. Illuminating the Border of French and Flemish Manuscripts, 1270–1310. London: Routledge, 2006; pp. 189, 195.


    Wirth, Jean,and Isabelle Engammare. Les marges à drôleries des manuscrits gothiques, 1250-1350. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2008; p. 344.


    Leo, Dominic. Images, Texts, and Marginalia in a "Vows of the Peacock" Manuscript (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS G24). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers, 2013; p. 344.


    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.

    Upper board outside

    Lower board outside

    Spine

    Fore-edge

    Head

    Tail

    Keywords
    Book of Hours
    Christian
    Inhabited initial
    Flanders
    14th century
    Devotion
    Flemish
    Grotesques
    Historiated initial
    Ornament
    Heraldry

    Origin Place

    Ghent

    Date

    First decade of the 14th century CE

    Form

    book

    Binding

    Non-original Binding

    Binding Description

    French green velvet binding, now mostly worn away, late nineteenth or early twentieth century, and likely by Léon Gruel; boards are thin pasteboard; tightly sewn, with white and green silk endbands; edges gilt; traces of fastener visible in middle of fore-edge on both boards

    Language

    The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.

    Provenance

    Created ca. 1300-10 for Dominican use; style suggests Ghent; kneeling figure of woman before Crucifixion image on fol. 32r suggests a female patron; Flemish origin supported by arms of Flanders, in banner hanging from trumpet fol. 15v, and on shield fol. 116r

    Léon Gruel and Robert Engelmann collection, Paris, late nineteenth-early twentieth century, no. 92; their bookplate on front pastedown

    Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel in 1903

    Acquisition

    Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

    ← search Book of Hours (incomplete) W.85

    Origin Place

    Ghent

    Date

    First decade of the 14th century CE

    Form

    book

    Language

    The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.

    Provenance

    Created ca. 1300-10 for Dominican use; style suggests Ghent; kneeling figure of woman before Crucifixion image on fol. 32r suggests a female patron; Flemish origin supported by arms of Flanders, in banner hanging from trumpet fol. 15v, and on shield fol. 116r

    Léon Gruel and Robert Engelmann collection, Paris, late nineteenth-early twentieth century, no. 92; their bookplate on front pastedown

    Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel in 1903

    Acquisition

    Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

    Manuscript Overview

    Abstract

    This fragmentary Book of Hours was created in Ghent ca. 1300 for the use of a woman with Dominican ties. Although quite a bit of text and imagery is missing, including the calendar and Office of the Dead, this tiny manuscript is lavishly decorated on nearly every page with marginal drolleries and grotesques, making it a rich and charming book even in its fragmentary state.

    Hand note

    Textura quadrata

    References

    Contributors

    Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

    Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley

    Editor: Herbert, Lynley

    Copy editor: Dibble, Charles

    Contributor: Emery, Doug

    Contributor: Noel, William

    Contributor: Schuele, Allyson

    Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel

    Contributor: Toth, Michael B.

    Contributor: Valle, Chiara

    Contributor: Wiegand, Kimber

    Conservator: Owen, Linda

    Conservator: Quandt, Abigail

    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. 782, cat. no. 160.


    Miner, D. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949; cat. no. 49, pl. XXXI.


    Randall, Lilian M.C. Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966; p. 38 and passim.


    Diringer, David. The Illuminated Book: Its History and Production. London: Faber and Faber, 1967; p. 436, pl. VII-28.


    Lane, Barbara Greenhouse. The Development of the Medieval Devotional Figure. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1971, pp.174-5, fig. 196.


    Wentersdorf, K.P. "The Symbolic Significance of Figurae Scatologicae in Gothic Manuscripts." In Word, Picture, and Spectacle, edited by C. Davidson, 1-19. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications of Western Michigan University, 1984; p. 2, fig. 3.


    Owens, M.B. "Musical Subjects in the Illumination of Books of Hours from Fifteenth-Century France and Flanders." Ph.D. diss, University of Chicago, 1987: p. 365.


    London, Sotheby's, 21 June 1988. Referenced under lot 73.


    Wieck, Roger S., L.R. Poos, V. Reinburg, and J. Plummer. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life, exhibition catalogue of the Walters Art Gallery. New York: George Braziller, 1988; pp. 69, 71, 207, cat. no. 78, fig. 49.


    London, Sotheby's, 18 June, 1991. Referenced under lot 155.


    Lewis, Suzanne. Beyond the Frame: Marginal Figures and Historiated Initials in the Getty Apocalypse. The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 20 (1992): 53-76; p. 75-76 (n. 16 for p. 63).


    Epstein, Marc Michael. Dreams of Subversion in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997; p. 128.


    Hunt, Elizabeth Moore. Illuminating the Border of French and Flemish Manuscripts, 1270–1310. London: Routledge, 2006; pp. 189, 195.


    Wirth, Jean,and Isabelle Engammare. Les marges à drôleries des manuscrits gothiques, 1250-1350. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2008; p. 344.


    Leo, Dominic. Images, Texts, and Marginalia in a "Vows of the Peacock" Manuscript (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS G24). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers, 2013; p. 344.


    Bindings & Oddities

    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.

    Upper board outside

    Lower board outside

    Spine

    Fore-edge

    Head

    Tail

    Keywords
    Book of Hours
    Christian
    Inhabited initial
    Flanders
    14th century
    Devotion
    Flemish
    Grotesques
    Historiated initial
    Ornament
    Heraldry
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