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Detailed record for Harley 1251
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| Title |
Book of Hours, Use of Sarum ('Hours of Eleanor Worcester') |
| Origin |
France, N. W. (Rouen) |
| Date |
c. 1430- c. 1440 |
| Language |
Latin, some rubrics in French |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Artists |
Attributed to the Fastolf Master; ff. 23, 29, 33v, 39v, 52v, and 55 by another related hand (see Scott 1996); ff. 53v and 54 probably by the same hand. |
| Decoration |
23 full-page miniatures with large decorated initials and full foliate borders, some with hybrid figures, animals and birds, in colours and gold (ff. 23, 29, 33v, 39v, 40v, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52v, 53v, 54, 55, 56, 109, 148). 7 large decorated initials with full foliate borders including hybrid figures, animals and birds, in colours and gold, for the Hours of the Virgin after Matins (ff. 65v, 86, 91, 94, 97, 100, 103). 1 small initial in gold on a red and blue ground with a three-sided foliate border (f. 15). Small initials (2 lines) in gold on red and blue grounds with foliate extensions into the margins. Small initials (1 line) and line fillers in gold on red and blue grounds. |
| Dimensions in mm |
85 x 55 (50 x 35) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 186 (+ 2 paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Gold-tooled brown leather. |
| Provenance |
John, duke of Bedford (b. 1389, d. 1435): his portraits? (ff. 41, 51, 109), his obit added in the calendar: 'Obiit Johannes dux bethford[ie] m.iiii.xxxv.' (f. 12v), and the arms in the miniature for the Office of the Dead adapted to represent his funeral (f. 148); Bedford's badge of an eagle argent crowned and beaked or perched on a root or added on both of these folios.
Eleanor Worcester, probably to be identified with Eleanor Grey, née Sutton (b. in or after 1481, d. 1449), countess of Worcester, married to Charles Somerset (d. 1526), 1st earl of Worcester, illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, 2nd duke of Somerset; and subsequently to Leonard Grey (d. 1541), Lord Deputy of Ireland: 'Thys boke ys myne eleanor Worcester...' (f. 184v) and 'E Worcester' (f. 185) and several inscriptions in English, in the same 16th-century hand (ff. 1, 37v, 53, 182-183, 184v-185).
Added in a 16th-century hand to the calendar (f. 13), the dedication of the Brigettine Abbey of Syon (20 October) and Bridget (7 October).
Inscription, 16th century, signed 'Thomas Catcher' (f. 2).
Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician.
Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts: he bequeathed his library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
Inscribed in pencil, 18th? Century 'W Stephens' (f. 2). |
| Notes |
f. 1 is a paper fragment of a printed 15th/16th?-century book.
ff. 4-6v: added prayer in Latin by a contemporary hand.
f. 38: added prayer in Latin by a contemporary hand.
f. 183v-184: added prayer in English by a contemporary professional hand, starting 'This prayer is written in a stone in the church of saint John Lateraneus in rome...'. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), I, no. 1251.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 15.
Christopher Wordsworth and Henry Littlehales, The Old Service-Books of the English Church, 2nd edn (London: Methuen & Co., 1910), pp. 60-61.
Jonathan J. G. Alexander, 'A Lost Leaf from a Bodleian Book of Hours', The Bodleian Library Record, 8 (1967-72), 248-51 (p. 250).
Catherine Reynolds, '"Les Angloys, de leur droicte nature, veulent touzjour guerreer": Evidence for Painting in Paris and Normandy, c. 1420-1450', Power, Culture and Religion in France c. 1350-c. 1550, ed. by Christopher Allmand (Woodbridge: Boydel, 1989), pp. 37-55 (p. 53)
Kate Harris, ‘The Role of Owners in the Book Production and the Manuscripts Trade,’ in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475, ed. by Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 163-200 (pp. 181, 196 n 103)
Jenny Stratford, The Bedford Inventories: The Worldly Goods of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France (1389-1435), (London: Society of Antiquaries of London, 1993), p. 99 n. 7.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), I, 72 n. 19, II, 329, 331.
Janet Backhouse, Illuminations from Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), no. 11.
Charity Scott-Stokes, Women's Books of Hours in Medieval England: Selected Texts Translated from Latin, Anglo-Norman French and Middle English with Introduction and Interpretive Essay (Cambridge: Brewer, 2012), pp. 31, 75-76, 154-55.
The Digital Index of Middle English Verse, http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/imev/Records.php?MSS=BLHar1251 [accessed on 16 April 2013), nos 519-5, 5660-3.
Gregory T. Clark, Art in a Time of War (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2016), p. 280. |
| Last revised: 21 May 2013 |
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f. 23
Crucifixion |
f. 29
Virgin and Child |
f. 33v
Erasmus |
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f. 39v
Anthony |
f. 40v
Trinity |
f. 42
Michael |
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f. 43
Julian |
f. 44
Mass of saint Gregory |
f. 45
George |
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f. 46
Stephen |
f. 47
Christopher |
f. 48
Thomas Becket |
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f. 49
Nicholas |
f. 50
Apollonia |
f. 51
Saint |
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f. 52v
Dorothy |
f. 53v
Margaret |
f. 54
Barbara |
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f. 55
Mary Magdalene |
f. 56
Annunciation |
f. 65v
Illuminated initial |
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f. 86
Illuminated initial |
f. 91
Illuminated initial |
f. 94
Illuminated initial |
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f. 97
Illuminated initial |
f. 100
Illuminated initial |
f. 103
Illuminated initial |
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f. 109
Last Judgement |
f. 148
Funeral service |
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