MS H.8, fols. 5v–6r

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October: Sowing and Ploughing
November: Thrashing for Acorns

Hours of Henry VIII
Illuminated by Jean Poyer

France, Tours
ca. 1500
256 x 180 mm

Gift of the Heineman Foundation, 1977

MS H.8, fols. 5v–6r
Description: 

October: Sowing and Ploughing (fol. 5v)

In October the winter wheat is sown. The man at left sows the field with grain he holds in his apron. The man on the right plows his field with a team of white horses.

Beneath St. Remigius (October 1) in the left margin is St. Francis, receiving the stigmata (October 4). They are followed by two bishop saints, one of whom is undoubtedly Cerbonius (October 10), and, finally, Pope Calixtus (October 14). The zodiacal sign is Scorpio, the Scorpion.

November: Thrashing for Acorns (fol. 6)

In November the labor is to take the pigs to the forest and rattle the branches of the oak trees so they shed their acorns, thus fattening up the animals.

In the left margin are a large group of saints (for the Feast of All Saints, November 1), Death as a skeleton (for the feast of All Souls, November 2), and Sts. Martin (bishop of Tours, November 11) and Brictius (archbishop of Tours, November 13).

At the right are Sts. Catherine, with a palm of martyrdom and the sword of her decapitation (November 25), Andrew the Apostle, holding his X-shaped cross (November 30), Clement, in papal tiara (November 23), and Cecilia (November 22). The zodiacal sign is Sagittarius, the Archer.