Homepage for [Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis]
Decoration: 20 full-page miniatures within full architectural borders in gilt. The lower border includes the incipit for each liturgical text. 24 smaller miniatures, as well as 12 Calendar miniatures for the occupations of the months and 12 small miniatures for the signs of the zodiac in the outer margins within borders of flowers and foliage. 1-2-line initials in gold on blue and dark red grounds throughout. Written in bâtarde. Principal contents: ff. 1r-12v Calendar; ff. 13r-18v Gospel sequences; ff. 18v-27r Passion sequence according to St John; ff. 29r-66r Hours of the Virgin, Use of Bourges; ff. 66r-68v Hours of the Cross; ff. 68v-71r Hours of the Holy Spirit; ff. 71v-72v blank; ff. 73r-84r Penitential psalms and litany; ff. 85r-106r Office of the dead; ff. 106r-128v Prayers; ff. 128v-138v Suffrages. From the library of Lord Brotherton. He had purchased the manuscript from the London book seller Chas. J. Sawyer in the 1920s. See for a fuller description: N. R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, vol. 3 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983) pp. 40-41. See also: Katja Airaksinen, 'Les "heures Bouer" de la bibliothèque universitaire de Leeds, collection Brotherton, ms 8 : nouveaux éléments à propos de l'enluminure à Bourges au XVe siècle', Cahiers d'archéologie et d'histoire du Berry, 187 (2011), 3-17; Katja Airaksinen, 'The Bouer Hours in Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection, MS 8: New Evidence for Manuscript Illumination from Bourges', Leeds Studies in English, 41 (2010), 1-24; J. A. Symington, The Brotherton Collection: a Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Collected by Edward Allen Baron Brotherton of Wakefield (Leeds, 1931), p. 24.
Image Credit : University of Leeds Libraries
1 v. (ii, 141, ii leaves) (1 column, 20 lines; ruled in red ink)