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Detailed record for Yates Thompson 5

Title Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Tilliot Hours')
Origin France, Central (Tours)
Date c. 1500
Language Latin
Script Gothic cursive
Artists Jean Poyer (Poyet)
Decoration 13 large full-page miniatures, usually divided into two registers, in architectural frames, in colours and gold (ff. 13, 20, 32, 40, 41v, 45, 48v, 51v, 54v, 60, 70v, 75v, 99v). 4 small miniatures, accompanied by partial borders with blank scrolls on coloured grounds, for the Gospels (ff. 9, 10, 11, 12). 26 historiated initials, in colours and gold (ff. 7, 111, 113v, 114, 114v (x2), 115, 115v (x2), 116 (x2), 116v, 117 (x2), 117v, 118 (x2), 118v, 119, 119v (x2), 120v (x2), 121, 122). Small decorated initials and line-fillers, in colours and gold.
Dimensions in mm 180 x 110 (120 x 65)
Official foliation ff. 126 (+ 2 paper and 1 parchment flyleaves at the beginning, and 2 paper flyleaves at the end)
Collation i6 (ff. 1-6), ii2 (ff. 7-8), iii8 (ff. 9-16), iv8-1 (4th leaf excised after f. 19, probably blank; ff. 17-23), v-xvi8 (ff. 24-119), xvii8-1 (8th leaf excised after f. 126, probably blank; ff. 120-126).
Form Parchment codex
Binding Post-1600. Black sealskin, 19th century, with two metal clasps; marbled endpapers; gilt edges.
Provenance The calendar was apparently written for someone with an interest in the Franciscans, and the litany for someone with links to Lyons: the calendar has the feasts of Bernardino and his translation (17 and 20 May), Francis and his translation (25 May, 4 October), the canonisation of Nicholas of Tolentino (5 June), Bonaventura (7 July), Louis of Toulouse (19 August), Clare and her translation (12 August, 2 October); the litany includes Irenaeus (in first place among the martyrs), Annemund, and Eucherius, all of whom were archbishops/bishops of Lyons; André d'Espinay (d. 1500), archbishop of Lyons and founder in 1494 of the convent of the Friars of the Strict Observance in Lyons (on whom see Gallia Christiana, 16 vols (Paris: Ex typographia regia, and others, 1716-1865), IV (1728), 180), may have been the first owner.
Jean-Bénigne Lucotte (b. 1668, d. 1750), seigneur du Tilliot, historian, collector and attendant of the duc de Berry, 1710: inscribed '1545 / Ex Musæo Jon du Tilliot anno 1710.' (f. 1, crossed through except for '1545').
Charles-Alexandre de Ganay (b. 1803, d. 1881), Marquis: probably inscribed 'les miniatures de ces heures manuscrites sont de la main de iulio clouio … ces heures ont eté achetées cent francs a la vente des effets de monsieur dutillot, a qui un seigneur de la cour qui les estimoit fort, les avoit remises.' (f. [iii]); his sale, 12-14 May 1881, lot 18; bought by Spitzer.
Baron Frédéric Spitzer (b. 1815, d. 1890), art collector (on whom see La collection Spitzer: Antiquité, Moyen Age, Renaissance, ed. by Frédéric Spitzer, 6 vols (Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1890), V, no. 15 p. 138, pl. II): his? green gilt leather book-label with a displayed eagle surmonted by a crown; his sale, 1 June 1893, lot 3017; probably bought by the book dealer Damascène Morgand, for 8,900 Francs.
Henry Yates Thompson (b. 1838, d. 1928), collector of illuminated manuscripts and newspaper proprietor: with his book-plate inscribed '[MS] 19 / nae [i.e. £540] / [bought from] Morgand / (Spitzer) / Nov(embe)r / 1895' (inside upper cover).
Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1941 by Mrs Henry Yates Thompson.
Notes The contents consist of a calendar (ff. 1-6v); suffrage to the Trinity (using masculine forms) (f. 7r-v); f. 8r-v is ruled, otherwise blank; Gospel extracts (ff. 9-12v); the Passion narrative (John 18:1-19:42), followed by a prayer (ff. 13-19); the Hours of the Virgin, with the Hours of the Cross and of the Spirit intermixed, with seasonal variants (ff. 20-70); Office of the Dead (ff. 70v-99); the Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany (ff. 99v-111); a prayer to Christ (ff. 111-113v), and suffrages to Michael, John the Baptist, All Prophets, James, All Apostles, All Martyrs, Stephen, Sebastian, Laurence, Adrian, Christopher, Calude, Anthony, Nicholas, Roche, Nicetus, All Confessors, Anne, Mary Magdalene, the Three Maries, the 11,000 Virgins, Catherine, Barbara, Genevieve, All Virgins, and All Saints (ff. 113v-122); the prayer Obsecro te (ff. 122-124v); a short Passion narrative (based on John 19:1-21:24) and prayer (ff. 124v-125v); f. 126r-v ruled, otherwise blank.
Select bibliography Catalogue d'un choix de livres rares et précieux: manuscrits et imprimés composant le cabinet de feu M. le Marquis de Ganay, Paris, 12-14 May 1881, lot 18.

Catalogue des Objets d'Art et de Haute Curiosité: Antiquités, du Moyen-Age & de la Renaissance composant l'importante et précieuse Collection Spitzer dont la vente publique aura lieu à Paris (...) du Lundi 17 Avril au Vendredi 16 Juin 1893, lot 3017.

Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson (Cambridge: University Press, 1898), no. 19 pp. 88-93.

Illustrations from One Hundred Manuscripts in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson, 7 vols (London: Chiswick Press, 1907-18), VII: The Seventh and last Volume with Plates from the Remaining Twenty-Two MSS., p. 7, pls. XXXVI-XXXVII.

[Derek Howard Turner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series V: Fifty Plates (London: British Museum, 1965), no. XLIX p. 25, pl. XLIX.

John Plummer and Gregory Clark, The Last Flowering: French Painting in Manuscripts 1420-1530 (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library; Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 87.

Janet M. Backhouse, 'A Book of Hours by a Contemporary of Jean Bourdichon: A Preliminary Note on British Library Yates Thompson MS. 5', in Manuscripts in the Fifty Years after the Invention of Printing, ed. by J. B. Trapp (London: Warburg Institute, 1983), pp. 45-49, pls. 17-22.

Janet Backhouse, 'French Manuscript Illumination 1450-1530', in Renaissance Painting in Manuscripts: Treasures from the British Library , ed. by Thomas Kren (New York: Hudson Hills, 1983), no. 23, pp. 175-80, pls XXVIII-XXIX.

Janet Backhouse, Books of Hours (London: British Library, 1985), fig. 33.

Janet Backhouse, 'The Tilliot Hours: Comparisons and Relationships', British Library Journal, 13 (1987), 211-31.

François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à Peintures en France 1440-1520 (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), pp. 307, 309, 314, 318.

Pierre-Gilles Girault, 'Jean Poyet peut-il être l'auteur des heures du Tilliot?', Revue de l'Art, 110 (1995), 74-78 (pp. 74, 76).

Janet Backhouse, 'Jean Poyet', in Grove Art Online (Oxford: University Press) [http://www.groveart.com/] [accessed 15 October 2005].

Roger S. Wieck, William M. Voelkle and K. Michelle Hearne, The Hours of Henry VIII: A Renaissance Masterpiece by Jean Poyet (New York: George Braziller in association with the Pierpont Morgan Library, 2000), pp. 29-30.

Janet Backhouse, Illumination from Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 125.

Mara Hofmann, Jean Poyer: Das Gesamtwerk, Ars Nova: Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Northern Painting and Illumination (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 29-30, 114-117, pls. 82-91.


Images
* * *
 
Trinity

f. 7
Trinity
John the Evangelist

f. 9
John the Evangelist
Luke

f. 10
Luke
 
Luke

f. 10
Luke
Matthew

f. 11
Matthew
Matthew

f. 11
Matthew
 
Mark the Evangelist

f. 12
Mark the Evangelist
Mark the Evangelist

f. 12
Mark the Evangelist
Betrayal of Christ

f. 13
Betrayal of Christ
 
Betrayal of Christ

f. 13
Betrayal of Christ
Detail: Christ before Pilate

f. 13
Detail: Christ before Pilate
Annunciation

f. 20
Annunciation
 
Visitation

f. 32
Visitation
Crucifixion

f. 40
Crucifixion
Nativity

f. 41v
Nativity
 
Circumcision of Christ

f. 45
Circumcision of Christ
Adoration of the Magi

f. 48v
Adoration of the Magi
Presentation in the Temple

f. 51v
Presentation in the Temple
 
Massacre of the Innocents

f. 54v
Massacre of the Innocents
Dormition of the Virgin

f. 60
Dormition of the Virgin
Dormition of the Virgin

f. 60
Dormition of the Virgin
 
Funeral of the Virgin

f. 60
Funeral of the Virgin
Dives and Lazarus

f. 70v
Dives and Lazarus
Job on the dungheap

f. 75v
Job on the dungheap
 
David and Goliath

f. 99v
David and Goliath
Michael

f. 113v
Michael
John the Baptist

f. 114
John the Baptist
 
Prophets and James

f. 114v
Prophets and James
Apostles

f. 115
Apostles
Martyrs and Stephen

f. 115v
Martyrs and Stephen
 
Sebastian and Laurence

f. 116
Sebastian and Laurence
Adrian

f. 116v
Adrian
Christopher and Claud

f. 117
Christopher and Claud
 
Anthony

f. 117v
Anthony
Nicholas and Roche

f. 118
Nicholas and Roche
Blessed Innocent

f. 118v
Blessed Innocent
 
Anne

f. 119
Anne
Holy Virgins

f. 120
Holy Virgins
Katherine and Barbara

f. 120v
Katherine and Barbara
 
Genevieve

f. 121
Genevieve
Virgin and Child

f. 122
Virgin and Child

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