Accession number
MS M.754
Object title
Book of hours fragment with a life of St. Margaret (MS M.754).
Created
Saint-Omer, France, between 1320 and 1329.
Binding
16th-century French brown calf, gilt, with double fleurs-de-lis design in corners.
Credit line
Purchased in 1929.
Description
137 leaves (1 column, 17 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 156 x 110 mm
Provenance
Executed for a woman; Mme. Théophile Belin, Paris; Maggs (catalogue 500, 1928, no. 35, frontispiece illustration); purchased by J. P. Morgan (1867-1943) from James Drake, New York, in 1929.
Notes
Ms. book of hours fragment, use of Saint-Omer and the Hospitallers (or perhaps use of Thérouanne), with a life of St. Margaret in rhymed French; written and illuminated in Saint-Omer or Thérouanne, France, circa 1320s.
Texts: book of hours fragment (fol. 1-114); life of St. Margaret (fol. 114-132v). The last 5 folios (133-137), probably added in the 16th century, contain a Memorial of St. Gregory and an ex libris of Charles Denoues.
The first part of this manuscript (155 leaves) is in the British Library (MS Add. 36684).
Artist: Alison Stones has called this artist the Master of Morgan Ms M. 754 / Add. 36684.
Decoration: 3 miniatures; 26 historiated initials; numerous historiated borders with grotesques.
A terminus post quem of 1318 exists on fol. 78 in the London part of the manuscript.
The manuscript was written for a woman depicted in the margins of the folios having large historiated initials and on fol. 113v prefacing the Life of St. Margaret. We shall refer to her as patroness although her husband, depicted on folios 17v, 59v and 71v, could have commissioned the manuscript for her.
Revised: 2015
Texts: book of hours fragment (fol. 1-114); life of St. Margaret (fol. 114-132v). The last 5 folios (133-137), probably added in the 16th century, contain a Memorial of St. Gregory and an ex libris of Charles Denoues.
The first part of this manuscript (155 leaves) is in the British Library (MS Add. 36684).
Artist: Alison Stones has called this artist the Master of Morgan Ms M. 754 / Add. 36684.
Decoration: 3 miniatures; 26 historiated initials; numerous historiated borders with grotesques.
A terminus post quem of 1318 exists on fol. 78 in the London part of the manuscript.
The manuscript was written for a woman depicted in the margins of the folios having large historiated initials and on fol. 113v prefacing the Life of St. Margaret. We shall refer to her as patroness although her husband, depicted on folios 17v, 59v and 71v, could have commissioned the manuscript for her.
Revised: 2015
Script
textura
Language
Latin and French
Resources
Catalog link
Classification
Department