Beinecke MS 436               France, s.XV^^4/4
Vanderbilt Hours

1. ff. 1r-6v  Full calendar, in French, alternating entries in red and blue
with major feasts in gold.

2.  ff. 7r-10r  Sequences of the Gospels.

3.  ff. 10v-13v  Obsecro te...[masculine forms; Leroquais LH 2. 346-47]; O
Intemerata...orbis terrarum.  Inclina aures...et a morte subitanea et improuisa
me deffendat// [masculine forms; Wilmart 488-90, here ending defectively].

4.  ff. 14r-55v  Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome, beginning defectively,
weekly variations of Psalms at Matins begin on f. 47v; changed office for the
liturgical year begins on f. 52r.

5.  ff. 56r-66v  Penitential Psalms and Litany including Dionysius (10) and
Mauricius (11) among 11 martyrs; Hilary (3) and Aegidius (7) among 9
confessors; Radegundis as the last of 10 virgins.

6.  ff. 67r-70v  Hours of the Holy Cross, short form.

7.  ff. 71r-73v  Hours of the Holy Spirit, short form.

8.  ff. 74r-101v  Office of the Dead, use of Rome.

9.  ff. 102r-109v  Suffrages to the Trinity, Michael archangel, John the
Baptist, Peter and Paul, James the Greater, Stephen, Sebastian, Christopher,
Antony abbot, Nicolas, Martin, Mary Magdalen, Barbara, Apollonia, Catherine of
Alexandria, Margaret, Genevieve.

     Parchment, ff. ii (paper) + ii (16th-century parchment) + 109 + i
(16th-century parchment) + ii (paper), 188 x 120 (121 x 68) mm., trimmed.
Written in 25 long lines; calendar in 33 lines.  Single vertical and horizontal
bounding lines, full length and full across, ruled in red; prickings in upper
and lower margins.
     Bound too tightly for accurate collation.
     Written in batarde script.
     Miniatures and an extensive cycle of border vignettes by Jean and Jacquelin
Montlucon who were active in Bourges between 1477 and 1492 and who signed the
Monypenny Breviary (ex coll. Major J. R. Abbey, London, MS 5574; see
A. van de Put, "The Monypenny Breviary," Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland 56 [1922] pp. 72-114; N. Reynaud, "George Trubert,
enlumineur du Roi Rene et de Rene II de Lorraine," Revue de l'Art 35
[1977] pp. 41-61, fig. 37:  f. 20r of MS 436).  Other manuscripts decorated
at least in part by the same artists include Grenoble, Bibliotheque
Municipale MS 1011 which has a similarly extensive cycle of exploits of wild
men in lower margins (identified by C. Schaefer); Paris, Bibliotheque de
l'Arsenal MS 438; a Book of Hours sold at Sotheby's, 18 May 1981, no. 4,
and the Hours of Louis de Laval (Paris, B. N. lat. 920).  See in particular
the recent discussions of the artists Jean and Jacquelin Montlucon by C.
Schaefer "Nouvelles observations au sujet des Heures de Louis de Laval,"
Arts de l'Ouest (published by the Universite de Haut-Bretagne) 1980, no.
1/2, pp. 33-68 (MS 436 cited inaccurately as Yale MS 77 on p. 68, note 48)
and idem, "Die 'Romuleon' Handschrift (78 D 10) des Berliner
Kupferstichkabinetts," Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 23 (1981) p. 142.
     The calendar pages are framed by gilt columns and entablatures in the
antique manner with the occupations of the month and signs of the zodiac in
the outer margin and a Creation cycle in the lower margin.  Subjects of
miniatures as follow:  f. 1r God enthroned with angels; f. 1v Fall of rebel
angels; f. 2r Creation of sun, moon and animals; f. 2v Creation of Adam; f. 3r
Adam blessed by Trinity; f. 3v Adam presented crown by God; f. 4r Creation of
Eve; f. 4v Adam and Eve forbidden to eat from Tree of Knowledge; f. 5r Satan
and demons in Hell; f. 5v Temptation; f. 6r God and Satan; f. 6v Expulsion from
Garden of Eden.
     Eleven half-page miniatures framed in magenta and gold with cusping at the
top; fanciful architectural bases, surrounded by simulated grey-black marble
with joined wings and foliage branches in gold.  Subjects:  f. 20r Visitation
(Hours of Virgin, Lauds; Annunciation for Matins excised); f. 27r Nativity
(Prime); f. 30r Annunciation to shepherds (Terce); f. 33r Adoration of Magi
(Sext); f. 36r Presentation in temple (None); f. 39r Massacre of Innocents
(Vespers); f. 44r Virgin, crowned, adored in heaven (Compline); f. 56r David
and Bathsheba (Penitential Psalms); f. 67r Ecce Homo (Short Hours of Cross);
f. 71r Pentecost (Short Hours of Holy Spirit); f. 74r Lazarus in Abraham's
bosom and Dives in Hell (Office of Dead).
     Twenty-three miniatures, 8-lines in height, in magenta and gold frames, each
with a full border of flowers and acanthus, birds and grotesques on
compartmented gold and white grounds.  Subjects:  f. 7r John on Patmos (Gospel
Sequences); f. 7v St. Luke; f. 8v St. Matthew (rubric says Mark); f. 9v St.
Mark; f. 10v Virgin and Child (Obsecro te); f. 12v Pieta with three Marys
(O Intemerata); f. 102r Trinity (Suffrages); f. 102v St. Michael; f. 103r
St. John the Baptist; f. 103r Sts. Peter and Paul; f. 103v St. James the
Greater; f. 104r St. Stephen; f. 104v St. Sebastian; f. 105r St. Christopher;
f. 105v St. Antony abbot; f. 106r St. Nicolas; f. 106v St. Martin; f. 107r St.
Mary Magdalen; f. 107v St. Barbara; f. 108r St. Apollonia; f. 108v St.
Catharine of Alexandria; f. 109r St. Margaret; f. 109v St. Genevieve.
     Text pages with full borders:  columns in inner margin; panels with masks,
shields, garlands, and wings in upper margin; flowers and acanthus, as above,
in outer margin; and, in the lower margin, one of the fullest known cycles
devoted to the wild man (sometimes extended to include outer margin as well).
Other manuscripts from the same shop, the Monypenny Hours and Grenoble
Bibliotheque Municipale MS 1011, also contain extensive cycles of wild-man
imagery; the artists Jean and Jacquelin de Montlucon lived in Bourges in a
house "at the sign of the Wild Man."  See T. H. Husband, The Wild Man:
Medieval Myth and Symbolism, exhib. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 1980) no. 38, pp. 144-147, with reproductions of the wild man scenes on ff. 81r
(fig. 95) and 86r (fig 94).
     5- and 4-line initials with leafy branches, gold with fruits, flowers,
profile heads on pink or mauve grounds.  2- and 1-line initials, line-endings,
and KL monograms in the same style.  Rubrics in red.  Calendar entries
alternate red and blue.  F. i verso added in s. xvi:  the arms of Gian
Francesco di Montegnacco in a frame closely modelled on the decoration of the
calendar pages.
     Binding:  s. xix.  Tan goatskin, gold-tooled with concentric frames, the
central panel daubed with green and red.  Red label.

Written in France in the last quarter of the 15th century, probably in Bourges,
where the artists Jean and Jacquelin Montlucon were active.  Original owner
unknown; evidence for his or her identity includes the inscription "Le cheval
de MH" on the trappings of a knight's horse (f. 17r) and the initials R and
A joined by a love knot, on the canopy of a litter (f. 70v).  Belonged to
Gian Francesco di Montegnacco (d. 1541), Canon of Aquileia, and Count Palatine
and Protonotary Apostolic under Pope Clement VII (see V. Spreti,
Enciclopedia storico-nobiliare italiana [Milan, 1931] v. 4, pp. 670-72).
He had added a full-page frontispiece (f. iv verso) including his arms
(quarterly 1 & 4, sable, a lion argent, crowned and armed or, standing on 3
hillocks vert; 2 & 3, gules, a tower argent charged with a fleur-de-lis or;
Crest:  the cap, sable, of a protonotary apostolic; supported by 2 winged
putti; inscription below, in gold capitals on a blue field:  IOANNIS.
FRANCISCI. MONTENIACI. D. PROTONOTARII. ET. SCVTIF. AP. CANO. AQ.); his arms
also added in many marginal scenes of wild men, on shields (e.g. ff. 16r-v, 38r,
40v, 43r).  Belonged to Philippe de la Tour, bishop of Adria (1707-17);
bequeathed by him to his godson Laurence de la Tour, who in turn gave it to
Ignatius Crivelli, Cardinal of Ravenna (1759-68), as recorded in the
inscription on f. iv recto:  "Ignatio Crivelli S. R. E. Cardinali Amplissimo
Legato Exarcatus Ravenae etc.:  Laurentius a Turre Ex Haereditate Patrui sui
Philippi Episcopi Adriensis D. D. D."  Acquired by Cornelius Vanderbilt (no.
193); bequeathed to Yale in his memory by his daughter Gladys Moore Vanderbilt,
Countess Laszlo Szechenyi, in 1966.

Bibliography: Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 259-61, no. 77, with pl. 28 of f. 56r.

Barbara A. Shailor