[Venetian book of hours].

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Catholic Church.

Contributor:

Jackson, John C., former owner.

Ely, William, Reverend, former owner.

Riegel, Jacob, former owner.

Fetterolf, Edwin H., 1873-1941, former owner.

Language:

Italian

Latin

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--Prayers and devotions--Early works to 1800.

Catholic Church.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

books of hours.

religious calendars.

Manuscripts, Latin -- 15th century.

Manuscripts, Italian -- 15th century.

Manuscripts, Latin -- 16th century.

Manuscripts, Italian -- 16th century.

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Prayers and devotions.

Prayers.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by John C. Jackson, 1849 (autograph, f. 1r).

Formerly owned by Rev. William Ely of Philadelphia, purchased in Florence 1875 (note, front endleaf).

Formerly owned by Philadelphia artist, draftsman, and cartographer Jacob Riegel (1889-1959), 1934 (note, front endleaf).

Gift of Philadelphia architect Edwin H. Fetterolf, 1942 (bookplate, front endleaf).

Physical Description:

144 leaves : parchment, color illustrations ; 111 x 79 (55 x 38) mm bound to 115 x 91 mm

Place of Publication:

[Venice?], [between 1480 and 1520]

Language Note:

Latin, with Holy Week devotions in Venetian Italian (f. 129r-133v).

Summary:

Book of hours including the Hours of the Virgin, prayers for the votive Mass of the Virgin, the penitential psalms and litany, the Hours of the Cross, the Hours of the Holy Spirit, the Office of the Dead, and other prayers. Dangling catchwords at the ends of the third and fourth gatherings (f. 32v, f. 42v) are evidence of missing gatherings in the Hours of the Virgin. The feast of the dedication of the basilica of San Marco (October 8) is strongly associated with Venice; other feasts significant to northern Italy include Secundus of Asti (June 1), Roch (August 16, in red, patron saint of Dolo), Prosdocimus of Padua (November 7), and Ambrose of Milan (December 7). A note on the first page of the calendar (f. 1r) attributes later additions in the calendar to the "York Hours, Harley 1663" (London, British Library, Harley MS 1663, Book of Hours (Use of York)). The section of prayers at the end of the volume begins with a group of prayers and instructional rubrics in Venetian Italian for each day of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through Easter (f. 129r-133v), and also includes Obsecro te and Ave Maria (135r-136v).

Contents:

1. f.1r-12v: [Calendar]

2. f.13r-55r: [Hours of the Virgin]

3. f.57r-59r: Ad missam sancte Marie

4. f.61r-81r: Septem psalmi penitentiales; Letanie

5. f.82r-85r: Officium Sancte Crucis

6. f.86r-88v: Officium Sancti Spiritus

7. f.89r-128v: Officium mortuorum

8. f.129r-144v: [Prayers for the days of Holy Week and other prayers].

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger; title in Zacour-Hirsch "Horae."

Collation: Parchment, ii (paper) + 144 + i (paper); 1¹² 2-5¹⁰ 6⁸ 7-8¹⁰ 9-10⁴ 11-15¹⁰ 16⁶; gatherings missing after extant gatherings 3 and 4; [1-144]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto; vertical catchwords in ink; remnants of signatures mostly trimmed away.

Layout: Written in 14 long lines.

Script: Written in a humanistic script with later additions to liturgical calendar in a different hand.

Decoration: Gold and blue used for initials; spaces left for initials that were never completed; later illuminated vine and flower (f. 13r).

Binding: 17th-century (?) calf, rebacked, split along front hinge, upper cover detached.

Origin: Written in Venice (based on liturgical calendar entries and Italian dialect) in the late 15th or early 16th century.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 2 (Ms. Latin 6).

Publications about:

Herman, Nicholas. Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries from Philadelphia Libraries (exh. cat.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Libraries, 2020. 154 (cat. 38).

Cited as:

Venetian Book of Hours (Ms. Codex 688). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

155985404

Access Restriction:

Access to this item is subject to staff review.