Da Costa hours

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Accession number: 
MS M.399
Title: 
Book of Hours
Created: 
Bruges, Belgium, ca. 1515.
Binding: 
Formerly in old green velvet with 2 silver clasps (preserved separately); 388 leaves in total; divided into two and rebound in dark green oasis morocco by Deborah Evetts in 1983 (v. 1, fols. 1-199; v. 2, fols. 200-388).
Credit: 
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), 1910.
Description: 
2 v. (v. 1, fols. 1-199; v. 2, fols. 200-388) (1 column, 17 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 172 x 125 mm
Provenance: 
Probably made ca. 1515 for a member of the Portuguese Sá (Saa) family of Porto, possibly João Rodrigues de Sá (original arms in a blue and silver checkered pattern painted beneath the Da Costa arms on fol. 1v); owned ca. 1520 by Don Alvaro da Costa (arms on flyleaf), chamberlain of Manuel I of Portugal; passed by inheritance to the Duque de Mesquitela family; exhibited in Lisbon in 1882 (Exposição retrospectiva de arte ornamental Portugueza e Hespanhola, cat. no. 17); perhaps sold by the Mesquitela family after 1890; sold by Quaritch (1905) to George C. Thomas of Philadelphia (cat. 1907, pp. 37-38); purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Thomas's heirs in 1910; J.P. Morgan (1867-1924).
Notes: 

Ms. book of hours for indeterminate use (Hours of the Virgin) and the use of Rome (Office of the Dead); written and illuminated in Bruges, Belgium, ca. 1515.
Decoration: 75 full-page miniatures (including 12 calendar illustrations), 15 small miniatures, 12 historiated borders with zodiacal signs.
Artist: Simon Bening and workshop.

Script: 
textura
Language: 
Latin
Classification: