Item Summary

Highly decorated book of hours.

Descriptive Information

Title
[Book of hours : use of Paris].
Call Number
Princeton MS. 87
Identifier
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dc9s161k73d
Publisher
[Paris, France], [approximately 1455]
Language
Latin
Date Created
1455
Format
Manuscript
Extent
170 leaves : parchment, illustrations ; 203 x 138 (94-100 x 58-62) mm bound to 210 x 155 mm.
Provenance
Unknown early provenance. First known owner was the Parisian publisher Ambroise Firmin-Didot whose collection was sold in 1883. Intermediate provenance is unknown. Acquired by Senator David Aiken Reed (1880-1953), of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Class of 1900, presumably after the early 1930s. Senator Reed's widow, Edna French Reed, donated the manuscript to the Princeton University Library in 1953. Accessioned 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
Contents
1. fol. 1r-12v: [Composite calendar]
2. fol. 13r-14v: Salve sancta facies.
3. fol. 15r-22r: [Gospel sequences]
4. fol. 22v-30r: [Two prayers to the Virgin]
5. fol. 31r-92r: [Hours of the Virgin]
6. fol. 93r-109v: [Seven penitential psalms]
7. fol. 110r-113r: [Short hours of the cross]
8. fol. 113v-116r: [Short hours of the Holy Ghost]
9. fol. 117r-147v: [Office of the dead]
10. fol. 158r-165r: [Suffrages to the Trinity]
11. fol. 158r-169v: [Added prayers]
Notes
Ms. codex.
Collation: Parchment ; fol. i (modern parchment) + 170 + 1 (modern parchment) ; catchwords ; modern foliation in pencil.
Layout: 15 long lines per page ; ruled with decorative borders on three sides.
Decoration: 13 arched miniatures, chiefly early work by the Master of the Harley Froissart (who also illuminated Princeton MS. 8S). Every page has foliate borders. Borders on miniatures sometimes have fruit, birds and pinecones. Calendar rectos have vignettes depicting the labor of the month and a zodiac roundel. Principal divisions opens with 2- to 6-line blue initials on gold with color highlights. Lesser divisions have 1-line initials. See the entry in Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 1, pages 299-300 for detailed descriptions of the miniatures.
Origin: Miniatures dated to approximately 1455 in Paris.
Binding Note
Modern binding. Rebound in 1986 by Deborah Evetts, rare books conservator at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Alum-tawed goatskin over wooden boards (7 mm thick). Previously binding 16th-century saffron velvet with red and green stuck-on endbands, and a green, red, and white bookmark

Discovery Information

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

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