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Book of Hours The Clifford Collection
In 1963 the National Library was able to purchase the private library of one of England’s longstanding Catholic families in its entirety. Within the collection is a very beautiful and important fifteenth-century Book of Hours.

Image of the Book of Hours

Unknown Artist
Christ wearing the Crown of Thorns (65v.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9
Unknown Artist
Wounds in the right hand (66r)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9

 

Book of Hours title

Commendation of the Souls

Unknown Artist
Commendation of the Souls (102v.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9

Books of Hours were medieval best-sellers. Nearly always illuminated, they were secular prayer books first appearing in the thirteenth century. The text originated from the tenth century when it was read only by ecclesiastics (church men and women), however by the twelfth century the books had become popular with the laity (secular, or the common person) who wanted to imitate the devotion of the religious. By the thirteenth century a standard form for a Book of Hours had emerged which continued to be in use until the sixteenth century, particularly in France and Flanders.

A Book of Hours combined the prayers of the Psalter (a compilation of the psalms) with the structure of the Breviary (Christian service text used by the monastic orders). Through a Book of Hours, the laity could conduct their own personal Divine Office, that is, a cycle of daily devotions. This cycle of devotions is made up of eight canonical Hours: matins (2.30 am), lauds (5 am), prime (6 am), terce (9 am), sext (12 noon), none (3 pm), vespers (4.30 pm) and compline (6 pm).

Abbreviated versions of these canonical Hours were contained within a Book of Hours, together with prayers, hymns and other texts sung and read by monks and nuns. The canonical Hours echoed the cyclical nature of both the seasons and of Christian ritual; cycles of birth and transformation combine to reveal an avenue beginning at baptism and ending with rebirth.

In most cases a Book of Hours contained prayers and devotional cycles illustrated with miniatures and decorated initials. The illuminations were designed to not only please the eye—an essential element in the Book of Hours’ popularity—but to also assist the user to read and understand fully the significance of the text.

Book of Hours and the images contained within them were designed to answer a widespread need within people for a clear and ordered path through life to death—through purgatory to salvation. For the medieval reader a Book of Hours was a means of achieving residence in Heaven with Christ after a journey through life–a reward promising eternal spiritual life.

 

The Value of the Mass-Produced

Many examples of richly decorated Books of Hours have survived to the present day. The most well known have often been the sumptuous volumes produced for and owned by affluent or noble patrons. Less famous but equally as important however are the examples of more standardized Books of Hours. These were crafted in their hundreds during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as a result of high lay demand which saw the mass production of both expensive and affordable editions of Books of Hours. Inevitably there was repetition of styles, compositions and motifs, leading to the production of many manuscripts of a standardised nature.

The Clifford collection Book of Hours is one such mass-produced volume. It is a beautiful example of a Book of Hours, which at the time of production would have been a fashionable and pious accessory for a relatively well-to-do late medieval layperson.

Anne Mary and John at the foot of the Cross

Unknown Artist
Anne (20r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9

Unknown Artist
Mary and John at the foot of the Cross (68v.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9

 

The Clifford Collection Book of Hours is a small volume, measuring 194 mm x 140 mm, and is believed to have been produced around 1441–1460. Vellum pages have been bound in sixteenth-century calfskin stretched over boards featuring a double panel of floral arabesque stamped ruling. Its 126 folios are illuminated with 26 large, and nine smaller, miniatures.

Christ being nailed to the Cross
Unknown Artist
Christ being nailed to the Cross (65r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9

The texts are divided into the three basic sections found in Books of Hours. First are the essential texts, extracted from the Breviary: the calendar, the Hours of the Virgin with the Hours of the Cross interspersed, the Penitential Psalms, the Litany, the Office of the Dead and the Suffrages of the Saints.

Secondary texts extend the book’s devotional scope, and include the account of the Passion according to St John and two very popular prayers to the Virgin, the Obsecro te (‘I implore thee’) and O Intermerata (‘O Matchless One’).

A third element—the accessory texts—include a set of prayers on the Passion known as the Fifteen O’s of St Brigit and the Psalter of St Jerome, which is now missing.

Overall the text emphasizes penitence and the absolution of sin as being possible through the intercessory powers of the saints and of Mary, mother of Christ.

The miniatures measure 96 mm x 70 mm and are framed in gold and black with serrated apical arches. The images within are painted in shades of blue, grey, yellow, scarlet, dull pink, green and white and their features are penned in with a free hand. Gold leaf has been used to highlight haloes and for background decoration.

Flagellation
Unknown Artist
Flagellation (42r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9

The illuminated images were designed to direct and sustain a person’s meditation on their own spiritual health. The images trace the events of Christ’s crucifixion and develop the late medieval theme of an accessible and humane Christ, sympathetic to the temptations and pains of mortal life, who has the compassion and power to redeem all repentant sinners. This series of illuminations accompanies the Hours of the Virgin and the Hours of the Cross. The association of text and image in the Passion cycle (the death of Christ) allow the medieval reader of the Book of Hours to celebrate the life of Christ and appeal to the compassion of the Virgin Mary–here depicted as the mother of a human Christ, and the mother of the Church.

Mary is represented as an important intercessor between the medieval reader’s soul and Christ the Redeemer. These images ask for the protection of the layperson in earthly life and appeal to both Christ’s and Mary’s direct knowledge of human suffering, as depicted in the Passion cycle.(Christ on the Cross, 46r). The reader’s hope is that on the Last Day (the Resurrection of the Dead) both Christ and Mary will not only remember the devotions made, but also recall the adversities the individual has overcome in order to lead a good Christian life.

The manner in which the reader may lead a virtuous Christian life is also described through the representations of the saints in the miniatures. These images encourage the reader to emulate the saints praying for the souls of others and leading a life balancing social ideals with humility and penitence.

By tracing out an ideal devotional day in the text and images for the medieval layperson the Clifford collection Book of Hours provides guidelines for an individual’s path through life. The well-worn and stained edges of particular pages provide an idea of which images and prayers gave the most comfort and direction for the owner of this particular Book of Hours. Whether on public display or meditated upon privately, the Book of Hours was a catalyst for prayer and moral excellence: it acted as a guide to living—a devotional pilgrimage to help the soul in living a good life and preparing for a good death.

 

The Patron, Producer & Market

It is thought the Clifford Collection Book of Hours was produced in a Flemish manuscript workshop, possibly in Bruges. Evidence of its origins is supplied by the book’s border decoration, the use of colour throughout, and the execution of several visual styles.

The calendar and the selection of saints’ prayers however infer that the book was created with an English individual or destination in mind. Illustrative programs highlighting penitential meditation on the theme of salvation and the Passion, and devotion to the Virgin also point to the book’s creation for a life within England. The most pointed evidence of an English market is the use of Sarum, a variant form of ritual followed by the religious orders, churches and dioceses of Salisbury, York and Durham, within the text of the Office of the Dead and the Hours of the Virgin.

Unfortunately the Clifford collection Book of Hours contains little information about its original owner with the exception of two tantilising references in the calendar to a family called Ravenhill.

 

How the National Library Acquired Clifford

Barbara

The Clifford collection came to the National Library of Australia in 1963 following its sale by Lord Clifford of Ugbrooke Park.

The Clifford collection was originally the private library of a longstanding Catholic English family beset by crippling death duties. As a result the collection was put up for sale—and the Library was able to purchase it.

It is not known how The Clifford collection Book of Hours came to the Clifford family’s library. Overall the collection consists of some 10 000 books, 1500 pamphlets and a small collection of manuscripts. The collection includes a number of examples of early illuminated works, although the great strength of the collection is in printed works from the sixteenth century onwards.

The Clifford collection Book of Hours is today housed in the Manuscript Collection at the National Library. It may be viewed in the Manuscript Room.

A full list of the manuscripts in the Clifford collection is available on the National Library's website.

— Dimity Philips

Unknown Artist
Barbara (23r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9
 

 

Book of Hours: click on image to view at larger size

George Unknown Artist
George (17v.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9
John the Baptist Unknown Artist
John the Baptist (15r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9
martydom of Thomas of Canterbury
Unknown Artist
Martydom of Thomas of Canterbury (16r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9
Christ flanked by two angels Unknown Artist
Christ flanked by two angels(7r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9
Judgement Day Unknown Artist
Judgement Day (73r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9
Christ bearing the Cross Unknown Artist
Christ bearing the Cross (44r.)
Book of Hours circa 1450, Flemish
Illuminated Manuscript
vellum; 19.5 x 14 cm
Clifford Collection MS 1097/9
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