Book of Hours (Use of Paris)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0096 MS 601
Held at	: Senate House Library, University of London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/our-collections ›
Full title	: Book of Hours (Use of Paris)
Date(s)	: 15th century
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 volume containing 77 leaves
Name of creator(s)	: Unknown
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

During the late Middle Ages, the Book of Hours developed as a popular devotional text for the laity, who would recite the particular prayer for the hour of the day and time of year according to the ecclesiastical calendar. The accompanying illuminations and miniatures of saints, the Virgin Mary, and Christ provided an opportunity for spiritual reflection and prayer for salvation.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Incomplete Book of Hours, of Paris use, written in [north-east] France in the 15th century. The manuscript has had the full-page miniatures removed, and so, apart from a full calendar, contains only imperfectly the sequentiae of the gospels, the Hours of the Cross, the Hours of the Holy Spirit, the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the seven penitential psalms, the office of the dead, the fifteen joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the seven requests.
There are notes at the beginning and end of the volume, in French in a seventeenth-century hand, relating to births, marriages and deaths in the family of Champregnault between 1561 and 1689. The hand is all one until 1617, and probably that of Quentin Champregnault, whose death is recorded at 1626.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
Latin and French

System of arrangement:

Single item.

Conditions governing access:

Access to the items in the collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the controlled environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Access to archive collections may be restricted under the Freedom of Information Act. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

Finding aids:

See N.R.Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries: I, London (1969).

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Bought from Mr.H.Harlock in 1963.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

K.P. Davenport, Books of Hours: a general survey with particular reference to University of London Manuscripts 509, 519 and 601 (1981).

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Oct 2001