Book of Hours (fragmentary) Use of Besançon

Fols 1r–12v. Calendar. While the Parisian Calendar has no distinctive regional emphasis, among the entries in gold are Denis and Louis of France.[i]

Fols. 13r–19r. Gospel Readings.

Fols 19r–21r. A prayer in honour of the seven last words of Christ.

Fols 22r–36r. Penitential psalms.

Fols 36v-43r. Litany of the saints, including Besançon saints Ferreolus, Ferrutius and Antidius, together with Benignus (Dijon) and Mammes (Langres).

Fols 44r–96r. The Office or Vigils of the Dead.

Foliation in modern pencil in Arabic numerals (includes six of the flyleaves and the two interleaved sheets), no pagination. Folio i^r to iii^r; fol iv^r; fol. vi^r to fol. vi^v; fol. 43v; fols vii^v-xii are blank. A blank paper folio, which was present when the foliation was done, has subsequently been lost; a filler folio numbered 27r-v has been inserted in the digital images to reflect this.

Text space: 97 x 63 mm. Black ink, fading to brown, ruling pale red ink, one column of 14 long lines (Calendar seventeen).

One- and two-line decorated initials appear throughout. Line-endings of the same design as the decorated initials occur after the third quire. In three places their tracery forms letters: fol. 55v S(al)ve gra Maria plena; fol. 56v dicit deus;

and fol. 89r Iaqueu.

Panel borders of floral –acanthus design, traced through from recto to verso, accompany each page of text.

Program of Decoration and Illustration

The miniatures illustrate the text as follows: fol 13r St John the Evangelist and the poisoned cup; gospel sequences; fol 22r David at prayer; penitential psalms; fol 44r burial service in a churchyard: Vigils of the Dead. Four-line foliate initials introduce the main divisions of the text beneath the miniatures. Full borders of floral-acanthus design decorate the pages with miniatures. The miniatures are framed in gold and arched at the top. Decorated bars surround the miniatures and four lines of text on three sides. Borders and miniatures are executed in blue, green, pink and white with added burnished gold.

K.V. Sinclair, ‘Un manuscript enluminé ayant appartenu à deux Bourguignons: Nicole Fonssard et Pierre Maréchal’, Annales de Bourgogne, Vol. 34, 1962, pp. 170–8.

 K.V. Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia, Sydney, 1969, pp. 355–6, No. 214.

 M.M. Manion and V.F. Vines, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Australian Collections, London, 1984, pp. 182–3, No. 74, pl. 39, figs. 199–202.

M.M. Manion, ‘Illuminating Words’, Art Bulletin of Victoria, Vol. 28, 1987, pp. 28–9, 33, figs. 28–9.

F. Avril, ‘Heures à l’usage de Besançon’, in F. Avril et N. Reynaud, Les Manuscrits à Peintures en France, 1440-1520, exh. cat. La Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, 1993, p. 197, No. 109.

M.M. Manion, ‘Book of Hours (fragmentary)’, in B. Stocks and N. Morgan (eds), The Medieval Imagination: Illuminated Manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand, exh. cat. State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 2008, pp.165-6, pl. 53.

Conservator Elizabeth Melzer has examined the collation of this fragmentary manuscript and concludes, ‘There is a single leaf (fol. 26) which appears between gathering 3 and 4. Sinclair (1969) and Manion and Vines (1984) include this in the 4^th gathering, but Elizabeth Melzer (2013) has included it in the 3rd gathering. There is a stub, which is the other edge of fol. 26 that sits between gatherings 2 and 3 indicating that fol. 26 is wrapped around the outside of the 3rd gathering and sewn through. The complicating factor is that there is a catchword on fol. 25v, which is now the second last leaf of the 3rd gathering. The catchword agrees with fol. 26 which at least means it is (fol. 26) in the right location. It is not clear whether fol. 26 was initially in the 3rd or 4th gathering. The catchword would seem to suggest that fol. 26 has moved from the start of the 4th gathering to the end of the 3rd at some stage. Its close proximity to the two paper folios hints that it was moved to permit the insertion of the paper leaves.’

François Avril has observed that this book belongs to a group of Books of Hours of Besançon provenance, which are the work of a Burgundian illuminator, probably from Dijon, who was active in Besançon in the second quarter of the fifteenth century and influenced a later generation of local illuminators.[i] The group includes Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 1186 (Use of Langres), New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 293, Vienna Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 1881, and a manuscript from the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, MSR-02.

The Master’s style is exemplified in the introductory page to the Gospel of St John (fol. 13). The modeling of the head and facial features of the saint and the elegant flow of his garments reflect the influence of earlier Parisian illumination. The blond tones of mountain rocks and tree trunks in the confined landscape are echoed in the flowers that sprinkle the light green foliage of trees and Lawn, as well as in the simulated metal of chalice and haloes. Together with the archaic, tessellated background, these details resonate with the lavish gold of the border and initial decoration, accentuating the luminous character of this artist’s work.

The image of St John and the poisoned cup was popular in late medieval art. According to Jacopo da Voragine’s Golden Legend, St John was challenged by Aristodemus, priest of the goddess Diana at Ephesus, to bear strong witness to the power of the Christian God by drinking poison. John made the sign of the cross over the cup and consumed its contents unharmed. Like many such legends, the story has a biblical connection, referring to Christ’s promise to the apostles as he sends them out on their mission (Mark 16: 18): ‘They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them’. The serpents issuing from John’s cup are a visual expression of its death-dealing contents.

Several manuscripts in this group display common workshop practices. The Melbourne and New York manuscripts have inscribed line-endings: some refer to the text, but the name ‘Jacque’ appears on fol. 89r of the Melbourne manuscript. More than one artist was often responsible for the miniatures in each book. The burial scene, for example, on fol. 44r of the Melbourne manuscript, is more crudely executed than its companion miniatures, and the co-ordination of text and illustration, sometimes involving the insertion of single or bi-folios, appears awkward at times.

In their original state, however, these Books of Hours were deluxe items, and later inscriptions in the Melbourne manuscript indicate that it was prized by high-ranking officials at the royal court of Dijon and kept as a family treasure over many years.

Digital imaging and research on this manuscript were supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Australia:Researching and Relating Australia’s Manuscript Holdings to New Technologies and New Readers. Substantial donations from the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Catholic Church Insurance and the National Australia Bank are gratefully acknowledged. The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat, The Network for Early European Research, and Newman College, The University of Melbourne, have also generously contributed to the project.

Chief Investigators (CIs) of the ARC project were Professor emeritus Margaret Manion (The University of Melbourne), Professor Bernard Muir (The University of Melbourne), and Dr Toby Burrows (The University of Western Australia). Graduate research assistants were Alexandra Ellem, Dr Hugh Hudson, Dr Elaine Shaw and postgraduate scholar Elizabeth Melzer (The University of Melbourne). Shane Carmody was the representative of the Chief Industry Partner (The State Library of Victoria). The following curators, conservators, photographers and computer specialists at The State Library of Victoria also contributed their expertise: Katrina Ben, Des Cowley, Ian Cox, Adrian Flint, Ross Genat, Jean Holland, Shelley Jamieson, Afsana Khan, Coralie McInnes, Monika McIntyre, Helen McPherson, Peter Mappin and Sarah Mason. Other contributors both in Australia and overseas are acknowledged in the relevant endnotes.

These detailed entries draw on the information in earlier catalogues and also update it. In particular, they are based on the following: K.V. Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia, Sydney, 1969, M. M. Manion and V. F. Vines, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Australian Collections, London, 1984, and B. Stocks and N. Morgan, eds, The Medieval Imagination: Illuminated Manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, 2008. Our debt to these pioneering publications and dependence on them are acknowledged here.

Margaret M.Manion on behalf of the ARC team, October, 2013.