Collects, sermons and lessons for the Nativity of the Virgin, Annunciation, Purification and Assumption
Texts and Images
The inclusion of these texts, not found in Parisian Books of Hours, indicates the influence of manuscripts from Brabant and Hainaut, and the diocese of Liège. Each of the Virgin’s four feasts received a large historiated initial showing the relevant episode in her life. They were painted by a single artist (hand D) on burnished gold grounds, with occasional diapered patterns (fol. 271v). The text and images show the water damage that the manuscript suffered when the collection of John Boykett Jarman was flooded in 1846.
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.