Manuscripts

Queens’ MS 50

Book of Hours
In Dutch and Latin
Amsterdam, 1453

In the later Middle Ages the Book of Hours became one of the most popular forms of devotional text. Produced in commercial workshops rather than monasteries, the Book of Hours enabled an increasingly wealthy and literate laity to follow a daily round of prayers, similar to those practiced by religious communities.

Dated 1453, this opulently produced copy was made in Amsterdam (in ‘Gothic bookhand’ script) with the exception of its seven miniatures of the life of Christ, which were created in Haarlem. These are likely to be the work of the Dutch illuminator known only as the Master of the Haarlem Bible. The red, violet, and blue initial ornamentation found throughout the manuscript exemplify the ‘mask-group’ pen-flourishing, a style of ornamentation which originated in Amsterdam.

The miniature on display shows the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary: ‘Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum’. The right hand page shows a prayer in Dutch, with the Doxology.

Unlike all other volumes in this exhibition Queens’ MS 50 is a relatively recent accession. An inscription indicates its donation to Queens’ on 23 April 1930 by the British artist and lawyer Joseph Yelverton Dawbarn of Liverpool (b. 1857–d. 1943).