YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 190 Flanders, s. XV^^3/4
Hours, use of Rome
1. ff. 1r-12v Calendar. Among the saints, Gudula (8 Jan.), Walburga
(23 Feb.), Valeric (1 April), Bernardinus of Siena (20 May), Basilius
(14 June, in red), 10,000 Martyrs (22 June), Eligius (25 June and 1
Dec.), Bertin (5 Sept.), Remigius and Bavo (1 Oct., in red), Donatianus
(14 Oct., in red), Hubert (3 Nov.)
2. f. 13r blank; ff. 13v-20v Short Hours of the Cross. f. 20v
ruled, but blank
3. f. 21r blank; ff. 21v-27r Short Hours of the Holy Spirit. f.
27v ruled, but blank
4. f. 28r blank; ff. 28v-34v Mass of the Virgin. Introit: Salue
sancta parens.
5. ff. 35r-39v Sequences of the Gospels; Mark rubricated "secundum
lucam" (f. 39r).
6. ff. 40r-46v Suffrages to Michael [beginning lacking], John the
Baptist, Peter and Paul, James, Sebastian, Nicolas, Anthony abbot,
Anna, Mary Magdalen, Catharine, and Barbara [end lacking].
7. ff. 47v-124r Hours of the Virgin Mary, use of Rome, with
different Psalms for the days of the week at Matins. Advent Office
begins on f. 115v. ff. 47r, 67r, 79v-80r, 86r, 91v-92r, 108r, 114v-
115r, and 124v are blank.
8. f. 125r blank; ff. 125v-146v Penitential Psalms and Litany.
Among the martyrs, Servatius, Protasius; among the doctors, Augustine;
among the monks and hermits, Benedict, Paul, Nicolas, Anthony, Bernard,
Francis, Dominic, and Alexius; among the virgins, Monica.
9. f. 147r blank; ff. 147v-192v Office of the Dead, use of Rome.
10. ff. 193r-199v Obsecro te...[masculine forms; Leroquais, LH
2.346-47]; O intemerata...[Wilmart 488-90].
Parchment, ff. i (modern parchment) + 199 + i (modern parchment),
147 x 102 (71 x 49) mm. Written in 17 long lines per page; ruled in
pale red ink; single bounding lines; prickings often occur near edges
of folios.
I-II^^6, III^^8 (+ two leaves, f. 13; + 9, f. 21), IV^^8 (+ one leaf, f. 28), V^^8,
VI^^8
(-1), VII^^8 (+ one leaf, f. 47), VIII^^8, IX^^8 (+ one leaf, f. 67), X^^8 (+ one leaf, f. 80),
XI^^8 (+ one leaf, f. 86), XII^^8 (+ one leaf, f. 92; another addition, after f. 96, now
missing), XIII^^8 (an addition, after f. 100 now missing), XIV^^8 (+ 2 leaves, f.
108, 115), XV^^8 (+ one leaf, f. 125), XVI-XVII^^8, XVIII^^8 (+ one leaf, f. 147),
XIX-XXIV^^8. Tops of some catchwords still visible.
Written in round gothic script, by one scribe.
Twelve full-page miniatures on the verso of tipped-in leaves
(blank on recto) rather routine and careless, in the style associated
with the so-called "William (or Guillaume) Vrelant group", active in
Bruges from 1454-1481/2 (see J. D. Farquhar, "The Vrelant Enigma: Is
the Style the Man?," Quaerendo 4 [1974] pp. 100-08): f. 13v (Hours of
the Cross) Crucifixion; f. 21v (Hours of the Holy Spirit) Pentecost; f.
28v (Mass of the Virgin) Virgin and Child; f. 47v (Matins)
Annunciation; f. 67v (Lauds) Visitation; f. 80v (Prime) Nativity; f.
86v (Terce) Annunciation to the Shepherds; f. 92v (Sext) Adoration of
the Magi; miniatures for None and Vespers originally following ff. 96
and 100 cut out; f. 108v (Compline) Flight into Egypt; f. 115v (Advent
Office) Coronation of the Virgin; f. 125v (Penitential Psalms) King
David kneeling; f. 147v (Office of the Dead) mourners around a coffin.
Miniatures are set in a narrow gold, black, and white arched frame; the
whole set in a border of thin, spiky acanthus leaves in
black, grey, and gold with touches of white, among blue, purple, and
mauve flowers. [Cf., e.g., the borders on the pages added to MS 9, Waddesdon
Manor (Bruges, ca. 1460), Delaisse, Marrow, de Wit, Waddesdon
Manor.] Each miniature facing a 6-line initial, black, with white highlights, on
a gold ground, filled with blue and black trilobe leaves. Ten historiated
initials, in the same style as the illuminated ones, illustrating the
suffrages: f. 40r, John the Baptist; f. 40v, Peter and Paul; f. 41v,
James; f. 42r, Sebastian; f. 43r, Nicolas; f. 43v, Anthony; f. 44r, Anna;
f. 45r, Mary Magdalen; f. 45v, Catharine; f. 46v, Barbara; each initial
with a border, as above. 2-line initials, gold on red and blue grounds
with white highlights; some (on rectos) with black ink hair-spray with
blue and gold flowers. 1-line initials, blue, with red penwork or gold,
with black penwork. Rubrication for headings and to mark antiphons, verses
etc.; also for dates and major feasts in calendar.
Binding: s. xvi. The backs of the quires are cut in on either side
of the sewing supports and at the kettle stitches. Original sewing on
five supports attached to wooden boards. Edges gilt and gauffered.
Covered in dark brown calf with a panel stamp of two sets of horizontal
inhabited vines within text borders, divided by a line of fleurs-de-lis
and flowers in diamonds. The four panels are enclosed by the
inscription: "Ora pro nobis sancta dei genitrix ut digni efficiamur
promissione Christi". Spine lining, endbands and silver [?] clasps and
catches added when the book was rebacked. One joint cracked. (See
Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 249-50, no. 72; Weale, South
Kensington, pp.
165-66, nos. 314-16.) According to J. Marrow a binding with same stamps
and inscription occurs also on a Bruges Book of Hours in the Boston
Public Library, MS q. Med. 137.
Written in Bruges in the third quarter of the 15th century;
belonged to Count Axel von Kalckreuth and Alva B. (Mrs. Bernard F.)
Gimbel (bookplates). Given to Yale by Mrs. Gimbel in 1956 and often
referred to as the "Gimbel Hours".
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 38, no. 190. Exhibition
Catalogue, pp.
249-50, no. 72.
T. E. Marston, "The Gimbel Manuscripts," Gazette 30 (1956) p. 152.
Barbara A. Shailor