Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 540: Book of Hours (Use of Rome)

purl.stanford.edu/jd913tp1831

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 540: Book of Hours (Use of Rome)

Language:

Latin

Extent:

ff. 217

Dimensions:

160 Height (mm) and 110 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1375 - 1399]

Provenance:

Early owner in the neighbourhood of Cordes-sur-Ciel, near Albi. A note of the building of the Château de Cordes in 1222 is added on November 7th in the Calendar. The town was fortified at that time by Raymond VIII, count of Toulouse, following the sack by Simon de Montfort in 1215 during the Albigensian Crusade. Given to the College by Almeric Hugh Paget, First Baron Queenborough, in 1923. A label on f. ir records this. It came up for sale at Sotheby's on 21 November 1923, lot 403, with a description wrongly dating the manuscript to 1340-48 which is based on an indulgence promulgated in 1348 on f. 213v, and ascribing, also wrongly, the illumination to the artist of the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, queen of France. Sir Geoffrey Butler, Fellow Librarian, wrote to Lord Queenborough on 31 October 1923, "You asked me from time to time to report to you when anything of interest turned up in Sotheby's catalogues", drawing his attention to various items, including lot 403. The letter is enclosed in Lord Queenborough's copy of Masters' History of Corpus 1831 now in the library at Leeds Castle, Kent. The manuscript may have interested Butler from the apparent similarity to MS 324 which may have been illuminated for Jeanne d'Evreux. Lord Queenborough agreed, he bought the manuscript for £100 and gave it to the College.

Table of contents:

Indulgence and prayers to St Sebastian

Description:

This Book of Hours, CCCC MS 540, of c. 1390-1400, was given to Corpus Christi College by Lord Queenborough (1861-1949) in 1923. It was made in Avignon and is decorated by the same group of artists as three other Books of Hours, Paris, BnF MS lat. 10527, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek MS ser. nov. 9450, and New York, Public Library MS Spencer 49. It contains eight half-page miniatures and many decorative ornamental borders. One of the artists involved in the illumination may be Jean de Toulouse, documented as working in Avignon 1378-94. A note in the calendar records the anniversary of the building of the castle of Cordes-sur-Ciel, near Albi, and the owner very likely lived in that region.