Book of hours, Use of Sarum (the Fincham Book of Hours), in Latin with additions in English thumbnail 1
Book of hours, Use of Sarum (the Fincham Book of Hours), in Latin with additions in English thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Book of hours, Use of Sarum (the Fincham Book of Hours), in Latin with additions in English

Manuscripts
ca. 1430-1440 (made)
Artist/Maker
Catholic Church
Place of origin
Belgium (made)
Bruges (made)

Foliation: parchment i-ii (paper c.1900), iii-v (18th-century paper, watermark) + 134 + vi-viii (as ff.iii-v), ix-x (as ff.i-ii) ff.
Number of Lines: 22 lines.
Language: Latin with additions in English.
Script: compact Gothic Textura with additions in cursive script.
Textual content:
ff. 1r-6v: Calendar, half full, with 15th and 16th-century additions.
f. 7r: Supplications to the five wounds of Christ.
ff. 8r-18v: Suffrages.
f. 14v: Account of St Armagil added in the 16th or 16th century.
f. 18v: Prayer to Henry VI added in the 15th century.
ff. 19r-23r: Fifteen O’s of St Brigit.
ff.23r-24r: Five Sorrows of the Virgin, added in the 16th century.
ff. 25r-61v: Hours of the Virgin.
ff. 62r-68v: Hymns to the Virgin.
ff. 69r-71r: Seven Joys of the Virgin, indulgenced by Pope Clement.
ff. 71r-73r: Series of prayers to the image of Christ, the cross and the wounds of Christ, ending with a suffrage to St John the Evangelist.
ff. 73r-77v: Devotional sequence.
f. 77v- Extract from Psalm 12:4 added in the 15th or 16th century.
ff. 79r-91r: Penitential Psalms followed by the Fifteen Gradual Psalms and the litany.
ff. 93r- 108v: Office of the Dead.
ff. 110r-118v: Commendation of Souls followed by prayers.
ff. 120r-123r: Psalms of the Passion (Psalms 21-30:6).
ff. 23r-133r: Psalter of St Jerome preceded by a prayer.
f. 133r: Prayer added in the 15th or 16th century.
f. 133v: Five Joys of the Virgin added in the 15th or 16th century.
ff.134r-v: Prayer.
Decoration: 18 miniatures on singleton, in narrow square frames on diapered, damask or landscape backgrounds (ff. 7v, 9v, 12v, 17v, 24v, 30v, 40v, 44v, 47v, 50v, 53v, 57v, 61v, 78v, 92v, 109v, 119v, 124v). Large initials in blue and lake on gold grounds at beginnings of principal sections. Full borders to miniatures of pen tracery and holly leaves picked out in gold. Blue, red and gold calligraphic line-fillers in Litany.
Artist: The illuminations have been produced by the Gold Scrolls group, a group of illuminators active in the Southern Low Countries (Bruges?) between ca. 1410-1400s.
Binding: ca. 1900, England. Light brown calf, with sunk panel on front cover with Crucifixion in relief, and lettering ‘Horae. B.V.M.’. Sewn on 5 cords. Bound by Cedric Chivers of Bath.

Object details

Categories
National Art Library
British Galleries
Books
Manuscripts
Medieval and Renaissance
Books of Hours
Object type
Manuscripts
TitleBook of hours, Use of Sarum (the Fincham Book of Hours), in Latin with additions in English
Materials and techniques
Ink, pigments and gold on parchment. Leather binding.
Parchment
Ink
Pigments
Gold
Leather
Illumination
Brief description
Manuscript, Book of Hours, Use of Sarum (the Fincham Book of Hours), Southern Low Countries (Bruges), ca. 1430-1440.
Physical description
Foliation: parchment i-ii (paper c.1900), iii-v (18th-century paper, watermark) + 134 + vi-viii (as ff.iii-v), ix-x (as ff.i-ii) ff.
Number of Lines: 22 lines.
Language: Latin with additions in English.
Script: compact Gothic Textura with additions in cursive script.
Textual content:
ff. 1r-6v: Calendar, half full, with 15th and 16th-century additions.
f. 7r: Supplications to the five wounds of Christ.
ff. 8r-18v: Suffrages.
f. 14v: Account of St Armagil added in the 16th or 16th century.
f. 18v: Prayer to Henry VI added in the 15th century.
ff. 19r-23r: Fifteen O’s of St Brigit.
ff.23r-24r: Five Sorrows of the Virgin, added in the 16th century.
ff. 25r-61v: Hours of the Virgin.
ff. 62r-68v: Hymns to the Virgin.
ff. 69r-71r: Seven Joys of the Virgin, indulgenced by Pope Clement.
ff. 71r-73r: Series of prayers to the image of Christ, the cross and the wounds of Christ, ending with a suffrage to St John the Evangelist.
ff. 73r-77v: Devotional sequence.
f. 77v- Extract from Psalm 12:4 added in the 15th or 16th century.
ff. 79r-91r: Penitential Psalms followed by the Fifteen Gradual Psalms and the litany.
ff. 93r- 108v: Office of the Dead.
ff. 110r-118v: Commendation of Souls followed by prayers.
ff. 120r-123r: Psalms of the Passion (Psalms 21-30:6).
ff. 23r-133r: Psalter of St Jerome preceded by a prayer.
f. 133r: Prayer added in the 15th or 16th century.
f. 133v: Five Joys of the Virgin added in the 15th or 16th century.
ff.134r-v: Prayer.
Decoration: 18 miniatures on singleton, in narrow square frames on diapered, damask or landscape backgrounds (ff. 7v, 9v, 12v, 17v, 24v, 30v, 40v, 44v, 47v, 50v, 53v, 57v, 61v, 78v, 92v, 109v, 119v, 124v). Large initials in blue and lake on gold grounds at beginnings of principal sections. Full borders to miniatures of pen tracery and holly leaves picked out in gold. Blue, red and gold calligraphic line-fillers in Litany.
Artist: The illuminations have been produced by the Gold Scrolls group, a group of illuminators active in the Southern Low Countries (Bruges?) between ca. 1410-1400s.
Binding: ca. 1900, England. Light brown calf, with sunk panel on front cover with Crucifixion in relief, and lettering ‘Horae. B.V.M.’. Sewn on 5 cords. Bound by Cedric Chivers of Bath.
Dimensions
  • Height: 270mm
  • Width: 205mm
  • Text block height: 115mm
  • Text block width: 85mm
Production typeUnique
Gallery label
(16/03/2018)
BOOK OF HOURS 1425-1449

Book of Hours contained prayers to be recited throughout the day. Prayers to the Virgin and to saints figured prominently. The cult of St Thomas a Becket (about 1120-1170), then England's most famous saint, was banned by Henry VIII in 1538. Prayers to him have been erased from this book. The book was owned by the Fincham family of Norfolk and contains some handwritten notes, including dates of the births and deaths of family members in the Calender.

Parchment with written text and painted miniatures and decorations; late 19th-century calf binding
Written in the South Netherlands, for English use
Given by Mr. George Reid.
National Art Library no. MSL/1902/1691
Credit line
Given by George Reid in 1902.
Object history
(1) Owned by the familly or associates of John Fincham (after 1482-1540) of Fincham and his wife Ela (d.1541).
(2) Inscription (now erased) reading 'Gele Stubbs & John Stubbs the sonne of John Stubbs'.
(3) Given by Philip [Bouverie] Pusey (1724-1828) to Thomas Brotherton of Hey, Lancashire.
(4) Property of T. Hayward Southby, of Carswell, Berks (inscription 'T. Hayward Southby Carswell 1825'). Sold with his library at Sotheby’s, London, 10 December 1890.
(5) Bought by George Reid from Quaritch's in 1899 and given to the V&A in 1902.
Association
Fincham
Bibliographic references
  • F.S., E. 'The Reid Gift.-II'. The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs Vol. 2, No. 4 (1903), pp. 74-75. pp. 389-390
  • Ker, N.R. Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries I. Oxford: 1967. p. 382
  • Winkler, F. Die flämische Buchmalerei des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts. Kunstler und Werker von den Brüdern Van Eyck und bis zu Simon Bening. Leipzig, 1925. pp. 180-181.
  • Rodgers, N. 'Books of Hours produced in the Low Countries for the English market'. Unpublished M. Litt thesis, University of Cambrdige, 1984. p. 31
  • Richmond, C. 'Margins and marginality: English devotion in the later Middle Ages'. In N. Rodgers (ed.), England in the fifteenth century. Stamford, 1994, pp. 246-247.
  • Townsend, E. Death and art : Europe 1200-1530. London, 2009, p. 29.
  • Watson, R. Western Illuminated Manuscripts.Victoria and Albert Museum. A catalogue of works in the National Art Library from the eleventh to the early twentieth century, with a complete account of the George Reid Collection. London, 2011. vol. 1, pp. 224-235, cat. 38.
  • Trésors médiévaux du Victoria and Albert Museum : quand les Anglais parlaient français, Paris : Éditions du Patrimoine : Collection Al Thani ; London : V&A, [2023] pp.182-183
Other numbers
  • MSL/1902/1691 - NAL accession number
  • 44 - Reid Gift
  • KRP.B.13 - NAL Pressmark
Collection
National Art Library
Library number
MSL/1902/1691 (Reid 44)

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Record createdMay 26, 2017
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1393977/book-of-hours-use-of-manuscripts-catholic-church/
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