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Medieval Manuscript Leaves: Book of Hours, Picardy, France, circa 1325 AD

This guide provides information about the eight Medieval Manuscript Leaves held by NIU Libraries Rare Book Room.

Catalogue Description

25. SPLENDID LEAVES WITH HISTORIATED INITIALS, FROM A HIGHLY DECORATIVE BOOK OF HOURS IN LATIN AND FRENCH. (Picardy, perhaps Amiens, ca. 1325). 6 1/4 x 4 3/4". Single column, 14 lines, in a clear and uncluttered gothic book hand. Slightly varying decoration, but usually several one-line initials in burnished gold on mauve and blue grounds with white tracery, line endings in bright gold and several colors (some of these containing zoomorphic elements), and WITH AT LEAST ONE VERY PLEASING TWO-LINE HISTORIATED INITIAL FEATURING THE FACE OF A PERSON FROM 14TH CENTURY FRENCH SOCIETY, these initials almost always with marginal extension terminating in ivy leaf sprays. 

Condition varies, but mostly excellent, with only minor soiling, and with the gilt and paint quite bright. 

Examples of the historiated figures found in initials here seem to be: two crowned noblewomen, one chagrined, the other snobbish; a pale-faced maiden in a wimple; a young man(?) and a young woman, each with a headdress that seems to contain eggs and a sprouting plant; an angry woman with fat cheeks; a dejected adolescent; two young women with jealous eyes; an elderly tippler in an orange hood; a downcast milkmaid; an intense student; a jester; a bellicose warrior; and an old ecclesiastic with lumpy jowls.

-- Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Manuscripts. “25. SPLENDID LEAVES WITH HISTORIATED INITIALS, FROM A HIGHLY DECORATIVE BOOK OF HOURS IN LATIN AND FRENCH.” Phillip J. Pirages Catalogue 47, 1992.

Book of Hours, Picardy, France, circa 1325 AD

 

This example is from a Book of Hours from Picardy, France, possibly Amiens, from approximately 1325 A.D. It has two historiated initials and a total of five decorated initials.

Books of hours are worship books used by regular people (not members of the clergy), as devotional items, to help with their daily prayers. They were held in the hand, and the illustrations were admired; they were not really used for reading the text. The text itself includes the standard prayers and psalms that are to be recited during the 8 different "hours" of the canonical day. ( 4)

Books of hours were the first "popular" books, owned in large numbers by ordinary people, not just scholars or monks. They were also highly prized status items, proving the wealth of their owners through the richness of their illustrations and bindings. ( 5)

 

ASK FOR JOHN HOSTA TO REWRITE THIS PIECE.