Item Summary

Descriptive Information

Title
Book of hours : use of Paris.
Call Number
Princeton MS. 87
Identifier
ark:/88435/dc9s161k73d
Publisher
[Paris, France] : [producer not identified], [1455?]
Language
Latin
Date Created
1455
Extent
1 volume (i, 170, i leaves) : parchment, illustrations ; 21 cm
Provenance
Princeton MS. 87 is of unknown early provenance, though masculine forms are used in the Obsecro te and other prayers. The first known owner was the Parisian publisher Ambroise Firmin-Didot (1790-1876), whose oval gilt red morocco bookplate of 1850 is on the inside front cover. In 1883 the Didot collection was sold. Intermediate provenance is unknown. The manuscript was acquired by Senator David Aiken Reed (1880-1953), of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Class of 1900, presumably after the early 1930s, because it was not listed in de Ricci. Senator Reed's widow, Edna French Reed, donated the manuscript to the Princeton University Library in 1953, as was attested by a pencil note on the front pastedown of the previous binding. The Princeton University Library accessioned the manuscript in 1955 as AM 15461e.
Source Acquisition
Gift; Edna French Reed, 1953.
References
Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 2, pages 298-300.
Rights Statement
Copyright Not Evaluated
Notes
Script: Textualis Semi-quadrata.
Decoration: This manuscript includes 13 arched miniatures, chiefly by the Master of the Harley Froissart, whom Franc̦ois Avril calls the “Maître du Froissart de Commynes.” He illuminated the Harley Froissart (London, British Library, Harley ms. 4379-80) and many other manuscripts, including Princeton MS. 8S and four other Books of Hours. This artist was active in Paris (1450s) and then in Bruges (1460s-1470s). His miniatures in Princeton MS. 87 are among his earliest work.
Binding Note
United States, 20th century. When acquired, the manuscript was still bound in 16th-century saffron velvet with red and green stuck-on endbands, and a green, red, and white bookmark. In 1986, Deborah Evetts, then rare books conservator at The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, rebound the manuscript in alum-tawed goatskin over wooden boards (7 mm thick). Spine title (gilt): “HORAE. Princeton 87.”

Discovery Information

Subject
Catholic Church—Prayer-books and devotions—Early works to 1800
Books of hours—France—Paris—Early works to 1800
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)—France—Paris
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)—New Jersey—Princeton
Illumination of books and manuscripts

Physical Characteristics

File Count
348

Institutional Information

Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean Manuscripts
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/c316f22a-fa30-474e-af9c-6390cc8ec47c/manifest