Evidence for the patron’s northern connections
Owners
The manuscript contains textual and visual features not found in contemporary French manuscripts. These features include the addition of readings for feasts of the Virgin with elaborate historiated initials; the insertion of the suffrages and images of saints at Lauds, the second office in the Hours of the Virgin; and the illustration of the Hours of the Virgin with scenes from Christ’s Passion instead of the Nativity cycle common in France. These features, typical of Books of Hours made in Brabant, Hainaut and the diocese of Liège, suggest that the patron had connections with regions north of Paris.
Joachim and Anna, the Virgin’s Nativity (Collects, sermons and lessons for the Nativity of the Virgin)
Joachim and Anna pray for a child in the upper part of the initial S. Below, Anna reclines in bed as the midwives give the newborn Virgin her first bath. The image was painted by Hand D.
The page suffered water damage during the 19th century. Technical analyses did not identify any modern pigments, but an unusual occurrence may be indicative of partial restoration. The white bed sheets on which Anna lies are shaded in blue with ultramarine (hotspot 1), while the white curtains above are shaded with indigo (hotspot 2) – a difference in modelling technique not observed on any other page.