Provenance: The earliest documented record of the manuscript appears in the sale catalogue of the collection of Sir John Boykett Jarman (1782-1864), auctioned by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13-14 June 1864. The catalogue description (lot 47) claimed that the Book of Hours was "undoubtedly the Prayer Book of the King of France" because its binding displayed his arms. Jarman had owned the manuscript since at least 1846, when it, together with other books in his collection, sustained water damage after his house was flooded during a severe storm. Traces of the damage are visible on the Dunedin leaves.

At the Jarman sale, the manuscript was purchased for £13 15s by the publisher Edward Arnold (1857-1942). It remained in his collection until it was sold at Sotheby's on 6 May 1929 (lot 240). The manuscript subsequently passed to the Oxford booksellers Chaundy and was acquired later that year by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968).

Beatty dismantled the manuscript, removing and mounting many of the 28 leaves holding miniatures. He retained a number for his collection, presented three to Harold K. Hochschild (1892-1981) in 1931, and consigned six to Sotheby's, where they were cold on 22 March 1932 (lots 322-327). Following Beatty’s death, the remaining miniatures and other leaves were sold at Sotheby's on 24 June 1969 (lots  58A-58K). The majority were purchased by English book dealers Alan G. Thomas and Folio Fine Art Ltd and subsequently dispersed to collectors and institutions around the world.

These leaves were acquired from Alan G. Thomas, catalogue 24 (1970), no. 7, for the Alfred and Isabel Reed Collection at the Dunedin Public Library through the bequest of Alfred H. Reed (1875–1975). The bifolium was bought on 5 August 1970 and the single leaft on 20 October.

Text: The text of the single leaf comprises part of the Libera me [Deliver me] responsory and associated versicles from Matins in the Office of the Dead, breaking off at the opening of Psalm 50. The text of the double folio comprises parts of Psalms 149, 150 and 129, together with prayers from Lauds in the Office of the Dead.

Decoration: The text is framed by an exquisite illuminated border of burnished gold staffs sprouting scrolling ivy vines with leaves in gold, red, and blue. Three-line and one-line initials, alternating red and blue on burnished gold grounds, mark textual divisions.

• Rose Faunce, Australian National University
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