Form:
1 volume, 171 leaves : historiated initial, decorated initials ;
145x102 mm Content:
Book of hours in the Dutch translation of Geert Grote. Contains:
(ff. 1r-12v) Calendar, use of Utrecht. – (ff. 14r-49r) Hours of
the Virgin. – (ff. 50r-72r) Long Hours of the Cross. – (f.
73r-95v) Hours of the Holy Spirit. – (ff. 97r-117r) Hours of
Eternal Wisdom. – (ff. 118r-136r) Penitential psalms and Litany
of the Saints. – (ff. 137r-171v) Office of the Dead. – Empty:
ff. 13r-v, 49v, 72v, 96r-v, 117v, 136v. Note:
Origin and date: Codex belongs to the so-called ‘Sarijs
manuscripts’; cf. Wierda 1995. Decorated in Zwolle, somewhere in
the years 1465-1490. The style group to which the codex belongs is
dated c. 1465-1485 by A. Lem and L. Wierda (in Korteweg 1992, p.
116). However, codex Leeuwarden, Tresoar, loan Ottema-Kingma
Stichting), the only dated manuscript in this group, was made in
Thabor monastery, near Sneek, in 1488 and thereafter decorated in
Zwolle.
Collation: IV (pastedown, 1-7), III (8-13) ; 4IV (14-45), II
(46-49) ; V-2 (50, 51-57,), IV (58-65), IV-1 (66-70, 71-72) ; 3IV
(73-96) ; IV-1 (97-101, 102-103), 3sIV (104-127), V-1 (, 128-136) ;
3 IV (137-168), II (169-171, pastedown,,). – Section with
Penitential psalms and Litany of the Saints begins in the last
quire of the Hours of Eternal Wisdom, after a blank page (f.
117v).
Leaves cut out in several quires, but without loss of text;
probably caused by scribal errors. Stubs between ff. 57/58 and
70/71 contain several letters; those on the verso of the first stub
show that the verso of the missing leaf was a dittography of 57v,
by a scribe who forgot to turn the page of his exemplar.
Decoration: Each of the six text sections opens with a 10-line
initial in blue, heightened with white, on a gold ground, and
combined with painted decoration over three borders. – One
historiated initial: Virgin with child on crescent moon, while two
angels in the outer corners are holding the floral border
decoration (f. 14r, cf. similar initial+borders in codex Liverpool,
University Library, Radcliffe 8, f. 15r, and codex Utrecht, Museum
Catharijneconvent, BMH 49, f. 13r; depicted in Wierda 1995, plates
9, 15). – Five decorated initials (ff. 50r, 73r, 97r, 118r,
137r). – Canonical hours indicated by 3-5-line gold initials on a
ground of alternate blue with old pink and old pink with blue,
heightened with white, and combined with painted border decoration
(including 100+ occurences of a decorative element known as
‘karbonkel’; cf. De Vreese 1971). – Also alternate red and
blue initials (2 lines) and versals; the Litany of the Saints
contains alternate gold and blue versals and line fillers.
Binding: Medieval binding, contemporary. - Leather (blind-tooled,
damaged) over wooden boards. – Panel stamp on front and back:
floral frame with in each corner a dragon or griffin in a
medallion); inside the frame a pelican, feeding her young (similar
to the panel stamp of codex Utrecht Museum Catharijneconvent, ABM
35, also a book of hours with a Zwolle origin; cf. Wierda 1995, p.
44). – Two clasp fastenings (closing back to front, replaced, one
hook missing).
Postcard from Willem de Vreese to J.F.M. Sterck about the
manuscript, dated 4 October 1936, kept with the manuscript.
Textual: (f. 1r-12v) Calendar contains erroneous saints, a.o. on 19
January “Sarijs” instead of “Marijs”; on 14 July
“Rocatus” instead of “Focatus”; cf. Wierda 1995, p. 56. –
Correction on 21 January: “Clement” (in red) crossed out and
followed by “Agneta joncf.” (in red). – The months June (6r)
and July (7r) are both indicated as “Junius Weidemaent” (in
red). – Andreas missing on 30 November.
Description (Bouwman 2023):
http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:3619870
Description (BNM 884):
http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:3562489
Description (BNM 949):
http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1906328 Part of:
Bibliotheca Publica Latina Subject (temporal):
Middle Ages
15th century
