Details

Subject(s)

• Books of hours—France—Paris [Browse]
• Catholic Church—Prayers and devotions [Browse]
• Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]
• Manuscripts, Dutch—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]

Related name

• Groote, Gerard, 1340-1384 [Browse]
• Princeton University Library. Manuscript. Garrett MS. 53. [Browse]

Former owner

• Chew, Beverly, 1773-1851 [Browse]
• North, E. D. [Browse]

Donor

• Garrett, Robert, 1875-1961 [Browse]

Compiled/​Created

[ca. 1500].

Summary note

Ms. book of hours for use of Geert Grote (1340-1384), written in the Netherlands. Liturgical evidence points to the Utrecht diocese with its chief saints (Pontianus, Odulph, and Willibrord) graded in red in the composite Calendar and listed (also, Adalbert of Egmont) in the Litany. There are no other clues to the destination or to the owner of the manuscript.

Notes

• Decoration: Penwork line-endings in rectangles of gold with alternating red and black filigree, in Litany. 1-line penwork initials alternately gold and blue for versals. 2-line blue initials with red penwork of Utrecht style, occasionally touched with green, for psalms, hymns, lessons, chapters, canticles, and collects (alternating with 2- to 3-line champide initials) in Hours and Office of the Dead. 2-line six KL initials of Calendar in blue, with red flourishes of Utrecht style, touched with green, on even-numbered folios. 2-line six KL initials of Calendar in gold, on blue grounds, on odd-numbered folios. 2- to 3-line champide initials for psalms, hymns, lessons, chapters, canticles, and collects (alternating with 2-line blue initials with red penwork of Utrecht style) in Hours and Office of the Dead, and the Penitential Psalms except Psalm 6. Outer or inner borders decorated with thin bars of blue, rose, and gold, terminated with sprigs of gold balls and foliage, and/ or with wide bars of leafy foliage on colored grounds including silver (f. 76v with pink, blue, and green acanthus leaves); occasional Cologne-style borders of thin rinceaux in gold with painted blossoms on reddish-pink speckled grounds. 13 initials of 6 to 10 lines decorated with leafy foliage and half figures of women and men for canonical hours of Prime through Compline in the Hours of Eternal Wisdom and for canonical hours of Matins through Compline in the Long Hours of the Holy Spirit. 1 historiated initial of 5 lines for Five Verses of Gregory the Great (see description of initial and border below for 8- to 10-line historiated initials). 21 historiated initials of 8 to 10 lines in solid gold or blue acanthus leaves, on pink or blue or gold grounds, with frames in gold, blue, and/ or rose, surrounded by full borders decorated with leafy foliage in green, blue, and red, gold balls, black or red speckles, and fauna (including owls, griffins, hybrids, birds, fox, apes, for canonical hours of the Hours of the Virgin and the Long Hours of the Cross, for Matins of the Short Hours of the Cross and the Hours of Eternal Wisdom, for Psalm 6 of Penitential Psalms, and for Office of the Dead). Borders historiated with arched vignettes, one or two per page with historiated initials, for the Long Hours of the Cross at Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, and Vespers. 4 small miniatures, one for Prayer to the Virgin, "O vrouwe der ewiger glorien coninginne ...," and three for Suffrages. 6 full-page, arched miniatures, surrounded by gold-framed borders decorated with leafy foliage in green, blue, and red, gold balls, black speckles, and fauna for Matins of the Hours of the Virgin, the Short Hours of the Cross, the Long Hours of the Cross, the Hours of the Eternal Wisdom, and the Long Hours of the Holy Spirit, and for Vespers Psalm of the Office of the Dead. Colors of royal blue, red, pink, lavender, emerald green, beige, pale yellow, gray, and gold striations and brocades.
• Layout: Parchment; single column of 19 lines; 180 x 130 (100 x 65) mm.

Binding note

16th-century, Dutch wooden boards with stamped brown calf, with two modern brass clasps, one missing.

Language note

Dutch and Latin

Script

Textura.

Provenance

Early modern provenance unknown. Inked note, "No. 421 and 6,560" on f. i. Penciled note, "A 47" on f. i. Beverly Chew (1850-1924), American book collector and a founder of the Grolier Club, New York; his morocco book label, with motto, "Esto qvod esse videris," on the front pastedown. He owned a number of illuminated manuscripts including three as Garrett MSS. 53, 57, and 58, two in San Marino, Huntington Library, MSS HM 1146 (Hours), and HM 1249 (Devotional Treatises), and two in the Grolier Club, New York, MSS 4 (Breviary) and 11 (Hours); his sale (New York, Anderson Galleries, December 9, 1924, lot no. 252, sold for $2,000); to E. D. North; later acquired by Robert Garrett (1875-1961), Class of 1897, of Baltimore, Maryland.

Source acquisition

Gift of Robert Garrett, 1942.

Publications about

Krochalis, Jeanne. "God and Mammon: Prayers and Rents in Princeton MS. 126." Princeton University Library Chronicle 44, no. 3 (1983), pp. 217, 219; fig. 4 (f. 82v: Trinity-Pieta).

References

• De Ricci, v. 1, p. 873
• Neuenschwander, p. 6 (no. 12)

Cite as

Garrett MS. 53, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Place name(s)

Netherlands.

OCLC

53859732

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