Book of Hours (Use of Metz)

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Toronto, ON, The Robertson Davies Library at Massey College, Gurney FF 0001

General Information

Title Book of Hours (Use of Metz)
Material Parchment
Place of Origin France (Northern)
General Remarks

Note by Otto Ege: This Book of Hours shows definite characteristics of the manuscript art of France and the Netherlands of about 1450 A.D. It was probably one of many copies prepared for sale at a shrine to which devout pilgrims came to worship or to seek a cure. The spiked letters and the detached ornamental bar are unmistakably Flemish in spirit, while the free ivy sprays are distinctively French. The burnished metal in the decorations shows the use of alloyed gold (oro di  meta) as well as silver. Various metals were added in different localities to the fine gold. English illuminations frequently had a decided orange hue, while the French had a lemon cast. The quality of the gold was best enhanced by the use of burnishing tools equipped with an emerald, a topaz, or a ruby. Less successful burnishers contained an agate or the tooth of a wolf, a horse, or a dog. 

Original Condition

Page Height 150 – 151 mm
Page Width 105 mm
Height of Written Area 90 mm
Width of Written Area 25 – 63 mm
Number of Columns 1
Width of Columns 56 – 63 mm
Number of Lines 15
Line Height 5 – 6 mm
Ruling Yes

Current Condition

Dimensions 150 x 103 mm

Book Decoration and Musical Notation

Description

Florals and Ivy in gold lettering and ornamentals in red and blue. Five decorated initials on recto, one larger than the rest (12 mm x 12 mm). The smallest initial is (4 x 6 mm) 

Other available descriptions

  • Simmons School of Library and Information Science (Boston, Massachusetts), LIS 464 Fall 2019 observations
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