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Hours of Isabella Stuart

The Hours of Isabella Stuart, Duchess of Brittany (MS 62) is an illuminated Book of Hours produced at Angers either between 1417 and 1418 or before 1431 (there are two competing theories as to its commission), in the workshop of the Rohan Master.[2] There were contributions from other masters, including the Master of Giac and the Master of the Virgin.[3]

Virgin and Child in a church, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.[1]

The manuscript follows the Paris liturgy of the Hours and is written in Latin.[4] It measures 24.8 by 17.8cm and has 234 folios. It is made from gold, ink and egg tempera[5] and is one of the most extensively illustrated Books of Hours in existence.[1] It was acquired by Richard Fitzwilliam in 1808, who bequeathed it to the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge upon his death in 1816.

It was originally produced for Yolande of Aragon (1380–1442), Duchess of Anjou, but is named after Isabella Stuart, who was one of its earliest owners and had her family coat of arms added to the book.[6][7]

Yolande of Aragorn was known for her intelligence and political acumen, and was a patron of the arts, commissioning c. 1400–1414 the building of the chapel of John the Baptist in the Château d'Angers. She at one time owned the "Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry" book of hours, and made it available to the Rohan Master while he was working on this book, which was probably intended for her daughter, also named Yolande (1412–40), on the occasion of her marriage to Francis I, Duke of Brittany.[8]

After the death of his first wife, Francis married Isabella Stuart, the second daughter of James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort, and gifted her the book.[9] It was reilluminated for Isabella to include images of the Scottish princess in heraldic dress (the ermine of Brittany and the lion of Scotland) and her own coat of arms.[10] Isabella passed the book to her daughter by Francis, Margaret of Brittany (1443-1469).[11]

  • Office of the Dead
    Office of the Dead
  • Visitation
    Visitation
  • Virgin and Child
    Virgin and Child
  • Christ as the Man of Sorrows
    Christ as the Man of Sorrows

References

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  1. ^ a b "Book of Hours (of Isabella Stuart): MS 62". The Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  2. ^ "Master of the Rohan Hours". Penn Libraries. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  3. ^ Harthan, 117.
  4. ^ Booton, Diane. Manuscripts, Market and the Transition to Print in Late Medieval Brittany. Routledge, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7546-6623-3
  5. ^ "Rohan master and workshop" Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  6. ^ Hourihane, 317.
  7. ^ "The Hours of Isabella Stuart". Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  8. ^ Hourihane, 105.
  9. ^ Archaeology, Current (30 June 2021). "Examining the Hours of Isabella Stuart | The Past". the-past.com. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  10. ^ Downie, Fiona Anne (23 October 2006). She is But a Woman: Queenship in Scotland 1424–1463. Birlinn Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78885-342-2.
  11. ^ L'Estrange, Elizabeth (2008). Holy motherhood : gender, dynasty and visual culture in the later Middle Ages. Manchester University Press. Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-7190-7543-8.

Sources

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  • Harthan, John. Book Of Hours. London: Random House, 1988. ISBN 978-0-5173-6944-9
  • Hourihane, Colum. The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-1953-9536-5
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