File:Book of Hours, Use of Rome (Victorines‑d'Auxy Hours) (IA 1945 65 15).pdf

Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, 1945‑65‑15. Bourges, France, Circa 1475-1480. This Book of Hours for the Use of Rome was made in Bourges, circa 1475-1480, and is known as the Victorines-d'Auxy Hours after its presumed patrons, grand maître de France Geoffroy de Victorines and his wife Catherine d'Auxy. The coats of arms on fols. 7r, 13r, and 79v may be theirs. If so, this would suggest the figures kneeling before the Virgin and Child on fol. 25r as Catherine and her daughter. The manuscript was illuminated by the workshop of Jean Colombe and contains a calendar in French (fols. 1r-6v); Gospel Lessons (fols. 7r-12v); Obsecro te (fols. 13r-15v); O intemerata, lacking its ending (fols. 16r-17v); the Hours of the Virgin, lacking its beginning (fols. 18r-60r); Suffrages (fols. 61r-68v); the Hours of the Cross (fols. 69r-79r); the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fols. 79v-85v); the Penitential Psalms (lacking their beginning), Litany, and prayers (fols. 86r-96v); and the Office of the Dead (fols. 97r-127v). The first folios of the Hours of the Virgin and Penitential Psalms have presumably been removed for their miniatures. Almost every remaining folio has a foliate border, many inhabited by birds, insects, and animal hybrids. The miniature of the Virgin and Child on fol. 16r has a full panel border with an angelic choir, and the funerary scene on fol. 97r has a series of border vignettes with scenes from the life of Christ. The calendar is embellished with border vignettes showing the Labours of the Months and signs of the Zodiac, and the Suffrages with small miniatures showing each saint commemorated there. The Hours of the Cross features an unusually extensive cycle of seven large miniatures with events from the Passion of Christ, and Hours of the Holy Spirit has six large miniatures showing the Annunciation, Pentecost, and scenes from the Acts of the Apostles. The miniatures are attributed to the workshop of the prolific Bourges illuminator, Jean Colombe.