"My heart hath uttered a good word..."
Verso: 14 lines of text in Latin written on vellum in an accomplished rounded gothic bookhand, Ruled in red and rubrics in red. One two-line illuminated initial ‘E’ in liquid gold on a red ground outlined in black and with fine internal white penwork. Extending from the initial into the margin are green tendrils bearing leaves, coloured flowers and gold bezants. Two similar one-line decorated initials.
Recto: 14 lines of text and two decorated initials.
Origin: France.
Date: c.1475.
Content: The text is from the Hours of the Virgin, Matins. The rubric 'an' on the fifth line indicates the antiphon: Specie tua. (By thy beauty.)
Then the illuminated initial 'E' begins Psalm 44 (KJV45)
Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum: dico ego opera mea regi.
Lingua mea calamus scribae: velociter scribentis.
Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum, diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis: propterea benedixit te Deus in aeternum.
Accingere gladio tuo: super femur tuum potentissime.
Specie tua, et pulchritudine tua: intende, prospere procede, et regna.
My heart hath uttered a good word: I tell my works to the king.
My tongue is the pen of a writer: that writeth swiftly.
Goodly of beauty among the sons of men, grace is poured abroad in thy lips: therefore hath God blessed thee forever.
Be girded with the sword: upon thy thigh o most mighty.
With thy beauty, and comeliness: intend, proceed prosperously, and reign.
Condition: The leaf is in excellent conditionI. It is unconditionally guaranteed genuine.
Size: Leaf: approx. 90x65 mm.
Notes: The extremely small size of this leaf can be explained thus: Medieval piety involved substantial elements of public display, and the small but emergent urban bourgeoisie, mostly merchants or administrators in the growing royal bureaucracies were intent on imitating their superiors. So the Book of Hours became something of a chic devotional accessory, especially for women, an incongruity that occasionally attracted disapproving comment. Eustache Deschamps, the great French poet of the late 14th century, put his satire into verse when he imagined the thoughts of a bourgeois lady who yearns for a Book of Hours that "is as graceful and gorgeous as me... So the people will gasp when I use it, That's the prettiest prayer-book in town.”
The heart of every Book of Hours is the series of prayers called the Hours of the Virgin, also called the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Each Hour is composed of psalms, hymns, biblical readings, and short phrases (antiphons, versicles, and responses).
The Hours of the Virgin date back to at least the ninth century. By the late twelfth century, the Hours appeared in Psalters, prayer books popular with laypeople. With a rising economy and the growth of the merchant class, the thirteenth century saw an increase in lay literacy. By the middle of the century, the Hours of the Virgin "spun off" from the Psalter and formed the core of the laypeople's prayer book, the Book of Hours.
The Virgin Mary is, of course, not mentioned in the numerous psalms of the Old Testament that comprise much of the Hours. Framing the psalms, however, are prayers that offer a mystical interpretation of the psalms and reveal the role played by the Virgin in mankind's salvation.
The "Hours" or "times for prayer" are
Matins and Lauds at night or upon rising
Prime (first Hour) at 6:00 a.m.
Terce (third Hour) at 9:00 a.m.
Sext (sixth Hour) at noon
Nones (ninth Hour) at 3:00 p.m.
Vespers (evensong) in the early evening
Compline before retiring.
Item No: MBH199
