Later modifications
Artists' Materials
When the manuscript was modified for Isabella Stuart, her arms were added to the border of several folios using gold and silver leaf as well as vermilion and carbon black. Her portrait was painted over that of the original patron kneeling before the Virgin and Child on fol. 20r, and St Catherine was added behind her. The saint’s blue mantle was painted with ultramarine, the same blue pigment used for the Virgin’s drapery during the original campaign. Soon afterwards, however, the patron’s originally large oval head dress was changed into a small ducal coronet. To hide the head dress, the front of St Catherine’s mantle was completed using azurite – the difference in pigments clearly revealed in the near-infrared image.
Azurite was also used for the Virgin’s robe and the background of the miniature added on fol. 28r for Margaret of Brittany in the 1450s. The green floor was painted with an organic colourant rather than the mineral green found in most of the images painted during the original campaign.
Margaret of Brittany praying to the Virgin and Child (prayer Omnis virtus)
The prayer and its image were added for Margaret of Brittany. She is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child at a prayer desk draped in fabric embroidered with the arms of Brittany. Margaret received the manuscript from her mother, Isabella Stuart, probably around 1455, the year of her marriage to her cousin, the future Francis II of Brittany. The text and image would have been added shortly after that and certainly before 1458 when Margaret became a duchess. Her tall, gold turret and its magnificent veil find parallels in manuscripts of the mid-1450s and denote Margaret’s wealth, but after 1458 she might have chosen to have herself depicted with a ducal coronet instead.
The marginal scene of Pentecost, illustrating the Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ cycle, belongs to the original campaign.
The added miniature was painted with an organic green, azurite and vermilion instead of the malachite, ultramarine and red lead found in the marginal scene and in most other images that belong to the original campaign. The use of cheaper blues and greens implies that Margaret may not have had access to the resources which were at the disposal of her parents, let alone of the manuscript’s original owner.