Illuminated around 1500 by the artist
Jean Poyer, The Hours of Henry VIII
receives its name from the possible but
unproven eighteenth-century tradition
that holds King Henry of England once
owned this splendid manuscript. By
following the simple instructions, you
can explore every painting of this
Renaissance masterpiece and learn
how Books of Hours helped their readers
to pray.
Books of Hours contain more or less
standard texts—Calendar, Gospel
Lessons, Hours of the Virgin, Hours
of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Spirit,
Penitential Psalms with Litany, Office
of the Dead, and Suffrages—as well as
a number of common accessory
prayers. Based on the frequency and
variety of added devotions, it appears
that scribes included these for owners
who wished to personalize their prayer
books.
St. Sebastian: Sebastian Shot with Arrows, Abandoned by Archers
Border: Sebastian's Body Cast into the Sewer (fol. 179)
During the late Middle Ages, Sebastian
was usually depicted as a handsome,
beardless youth, bound to a stake and
pierced with arrows, his eyes looking
heavenward. From the fifteenth century
on he was nude (or nearly so).
Poyer's muscular Sebastian,
his eyes turned upward, and
clothed in a loincloth, is based
on an Italian model. (Feast day:
January 20)
In the lower margin two men
dump Sebastian's shrouded
body into the sewer. To the
right a figure leaning on his
staff, probably the emperor,
oversees the operation, while
at the left three Christians,
including the matron Lucina,
wait to reclaim the body.
St. Sebastian
According to legend, Sebastian was born in Gaul and raised in Milan. Although a Christian, he joined the Roman army in 283, rising to captain in the Praetorian Guard under Emperor Diocletian. Sebastian clandestinely assisted and consoled imprisoned Christians in addition to converting and baptizing other soldiers and civilians. His own religious convictions remained a secret until the tortures inflicted on his Christian friends Marcus and Marcellinus so infuriated him that he publicly proclaimed his faith. He was then condemned to die as a target for archery practice. After the attack a pious widow, Irene, claimed the body but discovered that Sebastian was still alive. She nursed him back to health, and he returned to the palace to confront the emperor. Diocletian promptly ordered Sebastian beaten to death and the body dumped into the Cloaca Maxima, the main sewer of Rome, preventing Christians from preserving and venerating it as the relic of a martyr. On the following night, however, the saint appeared to a Roman matron, St. Lucina, revealing the location of his body, which was subsequently retrieved and interred in the catacomb on the Appian Way.
