Lehigh Codex 18 Book of Hours, Use of Rome

Description This Book of Hours of the Use of Rome was produced in France, likely in Lyon, in the second decade of the sixteenth century. The miniatures are similar in style to those of the Master of the Entry of Francis I, named after a manuscript now in Wolfebüttel (Cod. Guelf. 86.4 Extrav.). The calendar (fols. 1r-12v) is illustrated with twenty-four bas-de-page vignettes showing the labors of the months and the zodiac. This is followed by the Passion According to Saint John (fols. 13v-20v), which is introduced by a large miniature of the Agony in the Garden with a bas-de-page vignette showing Judas Receiving the Thirty Pieces of Silver; additional sections from the Passion are demarcated with six small miniatures showing the Arrest of Christ (fol. 14r), Christ Crowned with Thorns (fol. 15r), Christ before Caiaphas (fol. 15v), Christ before Pilate (fol. 17v), the Carrying of the Cross (fol. 18r), and the Crucifixion (fol. 19r). The Hours of the Virgin (fols. 21r-69r) begins with a large miniature of the Annunciation with a vignette of Musician Angels (fol. 21r), followed by miniatures of the Visitation with a vignette of Joseph and Mary traveling with a Handmaiden (fol. 33v), Nativity with a vignette of Traveling Shepherds (fol. 41v), Annunciation to the Shepherds with a vignette of Two Shepherds Speaking (fol. 45r), Presentation in the Temple with a vignette of Two Prophets (fol. 50v), Flight into Egypt with a vignette of the Miracle of the Wheat Field (fol. 53v), and Coronation of the Virgin with a vignette of Musician Angels (fol. 59r). The end of Terce and beginning of Sext, with the miniature for Sext, is lacking between fols. 47 and 48. The Hours of the Cross (fols. 70r-72v) begins with a large miniature of the Carrying of the Cross with a vignette of the Flagellation, while the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fols. 73r-75v) begins with a large miniature of the Pentecost with a vignette of Saint John the Evangelist and the Virgin Meeting a Group of Men. The Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers (fols. 76r-90r) begin with a large miniature of David and Bathsheba with a vignette of David and Bathsheba with Onlookers. The Office of the Dead (fols. 90v-121v) begins with a large miniature of the Three Living and Three Dead with a vignette of the Raising of Lazarus. The Suffrages (fols. 122r-131v) begin with a large miniature of the Isomorphic Trinity Holding an Orb with a vignette of Musical Angels. The remaining suffrages are illustrated with small miniatures of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Saint Veronica with the Shroud, Saint Michael, Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Evangelist, Saints Peter and Paul, Saint James, Saint Stephen, Saint Lawrence, Saint Christopher, Saint Sebastian, and Saint Nicholas. A final unillustrated prayer, in a sixteenth-century hand, "Illumina occulos meos...," occurs on fol. 132r. The large miniatures are surrounded by ornate two-level all'antica architectural frames painted in gold, with the three lines of text included as illusionistic banderoles. The red velvet binding is decorated with elaborate filigree mounts with the niello arms of Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), likely a spurious nineteenth-century addition.