Hours of Henry VIII

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Accession number:

MS H.8

Title:

Hours of Henry VIII

Created:

Tours, France, ca. 1500.

Binding:

18th-century red velvet and silver clasps, with royal English arms and monogram H(enricus) 8 R(ex).

Credit:

Gift of the Heineman Foundation, 1977.

Description:

200 leaves (1 column, 17 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 256 x 180 mm

Provenance:

Henry VIII (?); Charles Benoit Desmanet of Mons; George Wade; King George II of England gave it to the Royal Library of Hanover; King George III (who brought it to England in 1803; returned it to Hanover in 1816); King George IV; King William IV; Duke of Cumberland (Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, 1771-1851); George V, King of Hanover; Duke Ernest Augustus I (Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 1845-1923); Duke Ernest Augustus II (Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 1887-1953); Eisenmann (Heinrich Eisemann?); Joseph Baer; sold to Dannie H. Heineman by Graupe (Paul Graupe?) as a gift for his wife, Hettie Heineman; loaned to the Heineman Foundation in 1964; willed to the Foundation in 1974.

Notes:

Ms. book of hours for the use of Rome; written and illuminated in Tours, France, ca. 1500.
The calendar is Franciscan, with some Parisian elements.
Decoration: 14 large and 29 half-page miniatures, and 12 calendar illustrations.
Artist: Jean Poyer (formerly Poyet); the miniatures previously were attributed to Jean Bourdichon.
A single leaf showing the Virgin and Child (Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, R.F. 3890) and containing the end of the Stabat Mater on the verso once belonged to Ms H.8.
The unlikely supposition that Ms H.8 was owned by Henry VIII is due to a note written by George Wade (1673-1748) (on fol. 200, the last blank leaf) in which he stated that he acquired the manuscript from the estate of Charles Benoit Desmanet and that according to tradition it was a gift from Emperor Charles V to Henry VIII.
Revised: 2015

Script:

bastarda

Language:

Latin

Resources:

Description/Bibliography

Century:

15th century

Genres:

Books of hours

Illuminated manuscripts

Miniatures (Illuminations)