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[Book of Hours], Hours of the
Virgin, Execution of Thomas of Lancaster, 141v-142r.
[Book of Hours], Hours of the Virgin, Calendar: August, ff. 9v-10r.
Origin: [France, Saint-Omer?: c.1330].
Description: Illuminated manuscript on parchment. 164 leaves. 10 x 6 cm. Single column of 15 lines. Textblock: 5.5 x 3.7 cm.
Binding: Eighteenth-century Flemish red gilt morocco.
Comments: This tiny codex follows the liturgy of Salisbury. Written in gothic textura script in brown ink, frame ruled, with ample margins. Some rubrics written in Picard dialect. Calendar illuminated with illustrations of the signs of the Zodiac and Labors of the Months. Prayers to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (d. 1322) serve as a testament to the brief cult of Lancaster in the fourteenth century. Probably produced at Saint-Omer for an English patron. Contains a late fourteenth-century mnemonic in English for remembering the number of days of the months is possibly the earliest record of this rhyme.
Decoration: Twenty calendar miniatures, 15 full-color miniatures and historiated initials, many on gold leaf; scrolling vine borders set with various marginal drolleries, including dogs, rabbits, birds, humans, and hybrid creations:
Provenance: (1) J. B.
Toulmin, early inscription. (2) Goodspeed's Bookshop, Boston, 1950. (3) Dr. Lyle
M. Sellers, Dallas, 1950-1964. (4) Baylor University Medical Center Library,
Dallas, 1964-2001. (5) Long-term deposit at Bridwell Library, Dallas, 2001.
Bibliography:
Eleanor S. Greenhill. "Fourteenth-century Workshop of Manuscript Illuminators
and its Localization." Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte 40(1977):1-23.
----------. Gothic and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from Texas
Collections. Exhibition, 23 April-23 June 1971. Miriam Lutcher Stark
Library: University of Texas, 1971.
John McQuillen. "Bridwell Library Ms. 13, The Sellers Hours." M.A. Thesis,
Southern Methodist University, 2004.
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