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.
Hours of the Holy Spirit: Pentecost
(fol. 101v)
Pentecost, or the Descent of the Holy
Spirit, as described in the Acts of the
Apostles (2:1–4), took place in a
house where the disciples met on the
Jewish feast of Pentecost. After a
sound like a mighty wind came from
heaven there appeared to them
"parted tongues as it were of fire, and
it sat upon every one of them." They
were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and were given the ability to speak in
diverse tongues. Poyer, in a well-
established tradition, depicts the
power of the Holy Spirit as golden
rays emanating from a dove, symbol
of the Holy Spirit.
The Virgin is surrounded by
Apostles, who are again twelve
in number, Judas having been
replaced by Matthias. The two
Apostles in the foreground are
the youthful John (left) and
Peter.
The dove, which has a cruciform
halo, is directly above the Virgin,
who is often included in the
scene, though her presence is
not specifically mentioned in
the Acts. Such writers as St.
Odilo of Cluny (ca. 962–1049)
simply assumed her presence;
linking Pentecost with the earlier
descent of the Holy Spirit that
brought about the Incarnation,
he argued that it would have
been impossible to exclude her.
Feast of Pentecost
In the Middle Ages, the Christian feast of Pentecost (from the Greek word meaning "fiftieth day") was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter, just as the Jewish Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after Passover. As Easter is in proximity to the Jewish Passover, there was a correspondence made between the two Pentecosts. The Jewish Pentecost commemorated Moses' reception of the Law, while the Christian feast instituted the Church and thus the New Law. The analogy was made, for example, in the Biblia pauperum (a late medieval typological treatise), where the two events were paired; according to the accompanying text, "Just as the law was given to Moses and was written on tables of stone, so, on the day of Pentecost, a new law was written in the hearts of the faithful collected together when the fire appeared above them."
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