Breviary

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Accession number: 
MS M.52
Title: 
Breviary
Created: 
Bruges, Belgium, ca. 1500.
Binding: 
Portuguese 17th-century green velvet with brass corners and central gilt silver (?) medallions with the episcopal arms.
Credit: 
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1905.
Description: 
590 leaves (2 columns, 32 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 240 x 170 mm
Provenance: 
Original female owner, pictured on fol. 1v, unknown; Eleanor, Queen of Portugal (Leonor, Queen of Portugal, 1458-1525), her arms (argent, ten escutcheons azure, each with five plates argent, within a border gules with 14 castles triple towered or and divided by a pale gules with 3 castles triple towered or, at upper right a label with three points bearing the charge per saltire paly eight of or and gules, and argent, an eagle displayed wings inverted or, the whole surmounted by a crown or) and device (a fishing net with true-lover's knots and tassels) added over original arms on prie-dieu on fol. 1v; arms of Rodrigo de Castro of Spain (1523-1600; created cardinal in 1583) or of Miguel de Castro, bishop of Lisbon (d. 1625) (or, six pellets sable, the whole surmounted by a cardinal's cap) on the binding plaques; purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) from Hamburger frères, Paris, in 1905; J.P. Morgan (1867-1943).
Notes: 

Ms. Franciscan breviary for the use of Rome (Ordo breviarii, calendar, Hours of the Virgin, Office of the Dead); written and illuminated in Bruges, Belgium, ca. 1500.
Decoration: 25 full-page and 31 small miniatures, 11 continuous historiated borders, 34 border historiations, 51 calendar roundels, 2 calendar demi-roundels, numerous grisaille figures in calendar borders, numerous standing saints in architectural borders on fol. 1v, 140v, 189v, 190v, 375v, 532v, and 533.
Artist: Master of the Older Prayerbook of Maximilian I and the Master of James IV of Scotland, who some scholars identify with Gerard Horenbout.

Script: 
textura
Language: 
Latin
Classification: