Unknown
Leaves from an English Book of Hourslate 14th century

Not on view

Illuminated manuscript page in Gothic Latin script on cream parchment, with red and blue decorated initials, pen-flourish filigree, and vine-and-foliage border along the left and bottom edges

Illuminated manuscript page with Latin text in Gothic script, featuring a large decorated initial 'D' in orange, blue, and gold at lower left, smaller gilded initials throughout, and a vertical border of painted vine scrolls with blue flowers and heart-shaped leaves.

Illuminated manuscript page with Latin text in Gothic script, red and blue decorated initials, a painted heraldic shield in the right margin, and a floral border with stylized leaves and blossoms in blue, red, and gold along the left and bottom edges.

Illuminated manuscript miniature, haloed bearded figure in blue robes carrying a large cross and open book, standing against a checkerboard background of gold, blue, and red squares, with red and brown heraldic shields at upper left and lower left, bordered by delicate red floral vine marginalia.

Illuminated manuscript page depicting a haloed bishop in episcopal vestments and mitre, raising one hand in blessing and holding a cross-staff, set against a blue and gold diaper-patterned background. Two heraldic shields flank the figure. Floral vine border surrounds the composition in pink and blue on parchment.

Illuminated manuscript leaf with Gothic Latin text in brown and red ink, decorated left border featuring a painted heraldic shield in black and gold diamond pattern, interlaced blue and gold vine with pink flowers extending along the margin, and small floral motifs along top and bottom edges.

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Leaves from an English Book of Hours
Place Made: England
Date Made: late 14th century
Medium: Tempera and gold leaf on vellum
Dimensions: 8 1/8 × 5 1/2 × 5/16 in. (20.64 × 13.97 × 0.79 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Graphic Arts Council, in memory of Saul Marks
Accession Number: M.74.100.1-.3
Classification: Manuscripts
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: Sometimes referred to as “primers,” medieval English books of hours were used for private devotion, and included prayers to specific saints intended for various purposes, depending on the owner’s needs. LACMA’s folios include two miniatures cut from a portion of the devotional known as the Suffrage; they depict Saint Andrew and Saint Martin of Tours. Suffrages were short in length, with their text divided into antiphon, versicle, and response, and included elements of the saints’ lives and martyrdoms. The manuscript’s illuminator may have intentionally deployed archaic decoration, particularly apparent in the handling and design of the miniatures, meant to make the book of hours appear even older than its probable late fourteenth-century date of creation.

The three folios in LACMA’s collection once formed part of a book of hours commissioned by an English patron—possibly the Knyvett family of East Anglia, or the family of John Alouf (fl. 1430−40), a member of Henry VI’s court—which totaled 129 folios, including as many as thirty-seven full-page painted miniatures, each depicting a saint or a scene from the Life of Christ. It was broken up in the 1940s, and individual folios are now dispersed across multiple museum and library collections.

Claire Spadafora Baes

2024

Unknown
Leaves from an English Book of Hourslate 14th century

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Leaves from an English Book of Hours
Place Made: England
Date Made: late 14th century
Medium: Tempera and gold leaf on vellum
Dimensions: 8 1/8 × 5 1/2 × 5/16 in. (20.64 × 13.97 × 0.79 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Graphic Arts Council, in memory of Saul Marks
Accession Number: M.74.100.1-.3
Classification: Manuscripts
Collecting Area: Prints and Drawings
Curatorial Notes: Sometimes referred to as “primers,” medieval English books of hours were used for private devotion, and included prayers to specific saints intended for various purposes, depending on the owner’s needs. LACMA’s folios include two miniatures cut from a portion of the devotional known as the Suffrage; they depict Saint Andrew and Saint Martin of Tours. Suffrages were short in length, with their text divided into antiphon, versicle, and response, and included elements of the saints’ lives and martyrdoms. The manuscript’s illuminator may have intentionally deployed archaic decoration, particularly apparent in the handling and design of the miniatures, meant to make the book of hours appear even older than its probable late fourteenth-century date of creation.

The three folios in LACMA’s collection once formed part of a book of hours commissioned by an English patron—possibly the Knyvett family of East Anglia, or the family of John Alouf (fl. 1430−40), a member of Henry VI’s court—which totaled 129 folios, including as many as thirty-seven full-page painted miniatures, each depicting a saint or a scene from the Life of Christ. It was broken up in the 1940s, and individual folios are now dispersed across multiple museum and library collections.

Claire Spadafora Baes

2024