Details

Subjects:

Catholic Church -- Prayers and devotions.
Catholic Church.
Illumination of books and manuscripts -- Specimens.
Illumination of books and manuscripts.

Form/Genre:

Prayers and devotions.
Specimens.
codices (bound manuscripts)
books of hours.
devotional calendars.
illuminated manuscripts.
Manuscripts, Latin -- 14th century.
Manuscripts, Medieval.

Language:

Latin, with calendar in French (f. 1r-12v).

Summary:

Book of hours, use of Metz, with a calendar, the Hours of the Virgin, the Penitential Psalms and Litany, and the Office of the Dead. The calendar includes Saint Arnulf (11 October) and Saint Clement (23 November), both bishops of Metz, and the opening miniature of the Hours of the Virgin, showing Mary nursing Jesus (f. 13r), is particularly associated with Metz.

Contents:

1. f.1r-12v: [Calendar]
2. f.13r-29r: [Matins]
3. f.29v-45v: [Lauds]
4. f.46r-54r: [Prime]
5. f.54v-59v: [Terce]
6. f.60r-64v: [Sext]
7. f.65r-70r: [None]
8. f.70v-80v: [Vespers]
9. f.81r-88r: [Compline]
10. f.89r-107r: [Penitential Psalms]
11. f.107r-112v: Letanie.
12. f.113r-179v: [Officium pro defunctis]

Notes:

Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Parchment, i (paper) + 180 + i (paper); 1¹² 2-5⁸ 6⁶ 7-10⁸ 11⁶ 12-15⁸ 16¹⁰ 17-18⁸ 19⁸ 20⁸(?) 21¹⁰ 22⁸; [1-180], modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto.
Layout: Written in 12 long lines; frame-ruled in faint ink.
Script: Written in a late Gothic book script.
Decoration: 10 half-page miniatures (Virgin and Child, nursing, f. 13r; arrest of Christ, f. 29v; Christ before Caiaphas, f. 46r; scourging of Christ, f. 54v; Christ carrying the Cross, f. 60r; Crucifixion, f. 65r; descent from the Cross, f. 70v; entombment of Christ, f. 81r; Christ in majesty, f. 89r; funeral scene with priests and monks, f. 113r) with 4- or 5-line initials and branching foliate borders with ivy leaves; 2- and 3-line initials in color on cusped gold grounds with colored ivy stems forming partial text borders; 1-line initials in gold on pink and blue grounds with white penwork; entries in calendar in red and blue; rubrics in pale red ink.
Binding: Modern red velvet over pasteboards with metal clasp.
Origin: Probably written in Metz in the late 14th century.

Local notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the B. H. Breslauer Foundation, the Walter J. Miller Trust, the Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative, and the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Achille Ratti (later Pope Pius XI); given to him by Pietro Larghi, heir of Ambrogio Roveda, 23 Apr. 1913 (inscription on verso of front endleaf).
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 15 June 1959, lot 150, to Maggs Bros. (London); appears in Maggs cat. 866 (1959), no. 66.
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 11 Dec. 1979, lot 65, to an unidentified owner who held it until 2010.
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 6 Jul. 2010, lot 37.

Publications about:

Mark, C.M. "Manuscript illumination in Metz in the fourteenth century: books of hours, workshops and personal devotion." PhD Thesis, Princeton University, 1991. Vol. 2, pp. 697–99.
Nunes, E. in André-Pierre Syren, ed. Enlumineurs messins du XVe siècle (Metz: Bibliothèques-médiathèques de Metz, 2007), p. 71, no. 33.
Gasseau, Aurore. "La Vierge d'humilité: Thème dévotionnel de prédilection des possesseurs de livres d'heures messins (1340–1390." Chancels: Société des amis des arts et du Musée de la Cour d'Or (2021), pp. 47–50 (fol. 14r ill. as fig. 2).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1566

Contributor:

Pius XI, Pope, 1857-1939, former owner.

OCLC:

654868600

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page

The Rosengarten Family Fund Home Page