Ms. codex. In Latin and Dutch. Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based primarily on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis. Title devised by cataloger. Secundo folio: Maerte heist daghen xxxi. Collation: Parchment, fol. i (modern parchment) + i (medieval parchment) + 119 + i (medieval parchment) + i (modern parchment) ; 16 28+2 310 4-58 68+1 712−1 88+1 98+2 10-138 146, full-page miniatures at fol. 7, 11, 43, 63, 72 and 77 are tipped-in singletons. One folio cancelled after fol. 62 ; modern pencil arabic foliation, upper outer corner of each page. Layout: 1 column, 18 lines. Bounding and writing lines in light brown ink. Script: Written in several gothic bookhands in black ink with red rubrics. Decoration (primary): Nine full-page miniatures as follows: Crucifixion (fol. 7v, Hours of the Cross) -- Annunciation (fol. 11v, Hours of the Virgin) -- King David at prayer (fol. 43v, Penitential Psalms) -- Virgin Lactans (fol. 55v, Obsecro te) --Pentecost. Virgin kneels in a crowd, Holy Spirit descending (fol. 63v, 15 bliscepen) -- Virgin and Child (fol. 72v, O maghet maria) -- Funeral... Decoration (secondary): Single-line initials throughout alternating red with purple filigree or blue with red; two- to four-line initials throughout in gold filled with red on blue with white filigree highlighting (four-line to begin each hour, with full floriate border); 6-line initials throughout in blue with light blue filigree highlighting on gold background with floriate infill, with full... Binding: Early modern sheep over boards, deeply bevelled at edges to create raised corners, spine in compartments, title gilt-stamped on two brown leather spine labels in Latin and English: "Horae/ B.V.M" and "Latin & Dutch/ c. 1460-70"; vellum endleaves and conjugate pastedown. Housed in cloth-covered clamshell box. Origin: Written in the southern Netherlands in the mid-fifteenth century. Use undetermined; while the standard and newer tests for localization of the Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead are inconclusive, both offices are nearly identical with Thérouanne use, with only minor variation. Provenance: Male and female patron portraits on fol. 105v, the husband holding leg-irons, suggesting he may have recently been released from prison. Early ownership notation on fol. 113v, possibly original, naming one Katherine Minnis (that the only suffrage in the manuscript is to St. Katherine supports the identification of the original patron as a woman named Katherine): "Deise boek beoort... Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by BPL from Maggs in 1957 (Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts 57073). Call number: MS q Med.160. Former call number: MS 1585. Bibliography: Nancy Netzer, ed., Secular/Sacred 11th-16th Century Works from the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston College, 2006), no. 47.
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