Special Collections
Book of the Month, September 2007
Book of Hours (Use of Rome, Péronne), [1450-1500]
MS 519
Book of hours of Roman use, written and illuminated for female use at or near Péronne in France, the manuscript is a good illustrative example of these highly popular books from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. For nearly 300 years from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth century books of hours fulfilled a growing need for private reading and devotion, and became best-sellers of their time. They were lay prayer books that gave great literary expression to the cult of the Virgin Mary prevalent in this period. Books of hours were produced in vast quantities, both in manuscript and in print, and a large number have survived to our day in most major library collections.
The Senate House Library MS 519 is written in Latin with late 15 th and 16 th century additions in French. The manuscript contains a Calendar, Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Ghost, Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seven Penitential Psalms, a Litany of the Saints, a Litany of St. Peter of Luxemburg (d.1387), memorials of saints, and the Office of the Dead. There are also numerous prayers in French and Latin, some written for use by men and some for use by women. The volume is made up of 227 parchment leaves and contains illuminations throughout, including decorated initials in red, blue and gold, and foliate borders. There are also four full-page miniatures depicting the Crucifixion, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Annunciation, and King David in prayer, with framed floral borders on three sides.
Two notes on the last leaf indicating earlier ownership of the manuscript read: 'Ces heures somt et appartiennent a marie Le long, feme a nicolas Le Machon procureur dem[eurant] a Perone' and 'Ces heures somt et appartiennent a marie matron feme de nicolas cordier merchier demeurant a Peronne... 1538'. There is also an inscription on the first folio of the manuscript, which reads 'from the library of the Cardinal de Retz', but this has not been substantiated any more than has the tradition that the Book of Hours once belonged to Marie Antoinette's confessor.
The book’s known provenance begins with Edmund Waterton (1830-1887) of Walton Hall, near Wakefield, whose signature, dated 1843, also appears on the first folio, together with a note in another hand 'from P Murray'. From Waterton the manuscript passed to Miss Mackie, daughter of R.B.Mackie, MP for Wakefield in 1880. She made a gift of it to the Right Reverend H.L.Gwyer, one-time bishop of George, South Africa, and in 1956 of Amberley, Sussex. It was bought from him by Thomas Sydney Blakeney (1903-1976), who had the manuscript rebound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe (c.1960) and his own bookplate inserted. The manuscript was bought from Blakeney by the Senate House Library in 1960.
A description of this manuscript appears in:
N.R.Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries: I, London (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1969).
The Senate House Library holds three other books of hours from the same period, also written in France, many other liturgical manuscript fragments, and three full bible manuscripts. For a brief description of these and a full listing of the library’s medieval manuscript holdings see:
A guide to the medieval manuscript holdings, including fragments. http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/subjects/guides/medievalmss/index.shtml
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