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Detailed record for Harley 2936
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| Title |
Book of Hours, Use of Rome |
| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) |
| Date |
c. 1500 - c. 1510 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Humanistic |
| Artists |
Attributed to the Master of Martainville 183 (by Mara Hofmann cited in Zöhl 2004). |
| Decoration |
24 small miniatures with full foliate borders including hybrid figures and birds, in colours and gold, for the calendar (ff. 1-12v). 12 large miniatures with large decorated initials and full foliate borders including hybrid figures, animals, birds, etc., in colours and gold (ff. 15, 36, 39, 42, 44v, 47, 51, 61, 64, 67, 80, 84), 2 preceeded by a full-page miniature at the beginning of the Hours of the Virgin and the Penitential Psalms, the first on a brown ground, the second with full foliate borders, on originally blank pages (ff. 14v, 66v), and 2 preceeded by a large miniature with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold, at the end of the preceeding texts (ff. 35v, 41v). 14 small miniatures, in colours and gold, for suffrages (ff. 104, 104v (x2), 105, 105v, 106, 106v (x2), 107, 107v, 108, 108v, 109, 109v). All text pages with partial foliate borders, some including birds, in pastel colours and gold. Small decorated initials and line fillers, in colours and gold. Capital letters highlighted in yellow. |
| Dimensions in mm |
155 x 105 (90 x 50) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 109 (+ 4 flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1965; covers of old binding, Harleian gold-tooled red leather, pasted inside upper and lower covers. |
| Provenance |
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley '1 Martij, 1720/21.' (f. 1). Edward Harley bequeathed the 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. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), II, no. 2936.
W. R. Tymms and M. D. Wyatt, The Art of Illuminating as Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times (London: Day and Sons, 1860; repr. Studio Editions, 1987), pl. XV.14.
Janet Backhouse, Books of Hours (London: British Library, 1985), pp. 28-29, fig. 24.
Janet Backhouse, Illuminations from Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), no. 26.
Caroline Zöhl, Jean Pichore. Buchmaler, Graphiker und Verleger in Paris um 1500 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 47 n. 161, 186. |
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f. 1v
Calendar |
ff. 14v-15
Annunciation |
ff. 35v-36
Adoration of the Shepherds |
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f. 47
Slaughter of the Innocents |
f. 49
Decorated initial |
f. 57
Bee |
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f. 81v
Decorated initials |
f. 84
Death |
f. 84
Death |
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