MSS 13

MSS 13

Book of Hours Text: Hours of the Holy Spirit, abbreviated hymns: Prime, Terce, Sext, None

France

c. 1490

Latin

150 x 106 mm (90 x 56 mm)

Gothic Textualis Quadrata

Parchment

No visible signs of pricking or ruling.

Fol. 1r:
17 lines of gothic text that tend slightly towards the left margin. Six initials total, all in gold ink. Three of them occupy two lines while the remainder occupy only one. The borders that circumscribe the initials alternate between blue, red, and brown in no particular order. Five rubrications total. Clear signs of correction on the twelfth and thirteenth lines where the script is much darker than surrounding portions. The script of the rubricator is much more cursive-like with light flourishes, which indicates that the scribe and rubricator were most likely not the same person. Evidently, this leaf has been torn from a larger Book of Hours as seen in the tears that are visible on the leftmost side of the page.


Fol. 1v:
17 lines of gothic text that tend slightly towards the right margin. Six initials total, all in gold ink. Two of them occupy two lines while the remainder occupy only one. The borders that circumscribe the initials alternate between blue, red, and brown in no particular order. Seven rubrications total that vary in length. One small line filler on the end of the thirteenth line. It is not clear at the moment whether this line filler was employed to obscure an error on the part of the scribe or to add additional decoration to the text. The last word in the last line (dei) appears to have been corrected by a later scribe because it is significantly darker than the rest of the text.

Fol. 1r:
Two line initial on the first line; capital ‘O’ in brushed gold on blue background. Fine gold border around blue background. Gold flourishes within the empty space of the ‘O’ and fine fold background. Capital ‘D’ on the seventh line in brushed gold on red background. Fine gold border around background and within the empty space of the letter. Two line initial beginning on the eighth line; Capital ‘D’ in brushed gold on brown background. Fine gold border around background and an intricate floral design within the empty space of the letter. Capital ‘O’ on fourteenth line. Fine gold border around red background. Gold flourishes within the empty space of the ‘O’. Capital ‘D’ on fifteenth line. Fine gold border around brown background. Gold flourishes within the empty space of the letter. Two line initial beginning on the sixteenth line; capital ‘S’ in brushed gold on red background. Intricate gold swirls and flourishes within the empty space of the letter that resembles the slopes and curves of the typical ‘s’.

Fol. 1v:
Capital ‘O’ on fifth line. Fine gold border around brown background. Gold flourishes within the empty space of the ‘O’. Capital ‘D’ on sixth line. Fine gold border around blue background. Gold flourishes within the empty space of the ‘D’.Two line initial beginning on the seventh line; capital ‘S’ in brushed gold on red background. Intricate gold swirls and flourishes within the empty space of the letter that resembles the slopes and curves of the typical ‘s’. Capital ‘O’ on fourteenth line. Fine gold border around brown background. Gold flourishes within the empty space of the ‘O’. Capital ‘D’ on fifteenth line. Fine gold border around red background. Gold flourishes within the empty space of the ‘D’. Two line initial beginning on the sixteenth line; capital ‘S’ in brushed gold on blue background. Intricate gold swirls and flourishes within the empty space of the letter that resembles the slopes and curves of the typical ‘s’. The final word on the last line appears in much darker black ink than the standard of the leaf.

Text on the thirteenth line of the recto side towards the end is much smaller/compact and darker than the rest of the leaf. Suggests that original scribe made an error and revised accordingly, using darker ink to obscure the mistake. Similarly, on the twelfth line of the recto side the letters ‘en’ in the last word of the line are much darker. Another mistake could have been made in this place. The line filler on the thirteenth line of the verso side may also indicate that this decoration covers up an unsightly mishap. This idea is substantiated by the fact that no other line fillers are present on the leaf. Finally, the last word on the last line of the verso side is written in much darker ink. This may not indicate a correction necessarily, but it may suggest that it was at this point that one scribe’s work began and another’s concluded.

Fol. 1r:
Extremely faint word or phrase that appears in the bottom right corner. The number 84 is inscribed clearly in the upper right corner. It does not appear to be written in modern hand although it is not reflective of a medieval script either. Additionally, what appears to be the number 157 is written very faintly towards the bottom-middle of the page.

Fol. 1v:
The following number appears in the bottom right hand corner on the page: STI10790-91. This is a call number used by Pirages to identify their manuscripts. The corresponding description is listed above.

Acquired from California Book Fair 2016.

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