The 'Trivulzio' manuscript

The valuable and supposedly lost 15th-century book of hours that the Koninklijke Bibliotheek recently received as a gift was once part of the famous collection of the princes of Trivulzio in Milan. However, when the city of Milan acquired this collection in 1935, the book of hours was no longer there. Together with a large number of other manuscripts, it must have been sold by the princely family in the first decades of the 20th century. Prior to that, the book had been signalled a few times in the literature, but after 1916 it disappeared altogether. It now appears that the family of the present donor acquired it at an auction around that time.

Drs H Verbeek, sworn appraiser, expert and adviser in Amsterdam, has acted as intermediary between the Koninklijke Bibliotheek Museum Collections Foundation and the donor, who wishes to remain anonymous. The appraisal was made in cooperation with the manuscript expert of an auctioneering house in London. Mr Verbeek advised the owner to appoint the Koninklijke Bibliotheek as beneficiary, because of "the rich collection of medieval manuscripts of this institution, the importance the KB attaches to research and presentation of the material and because of the expertise and enthousiasm of the curator of medieval manuscripts, dr AS (Anne) Korteweg."

Books of hours

The book of hours was the most important book for private devotion of laymen in the late Middle Ages, and it was often made in commission. Especially in the 15th century it enjoyed unprecedented popularity, so much so that the production of books of hours exceeded that of all other kinds of manuscripts. The illuminations added to many copies, for which the most famous of artists were engaged, show that the commisioners were prepared to go to great expense. In the modern literature the book of hours is therefore often referred to as the 'status symbol' and the 'bestseller' of the Middle Ages.

The content of the book of hours consists of a number of standard texts, the core of which comprises three texts from the breviary, the prayer book used by the clergy: the Hours of the Virgin, the Penitential Psalms and the Office of the Dead. The most important text is that of the Hours of the Virgin, from which the book of hours takes its name. It consists of a number of psalms, hymns, short lectures and prayers to be recited in honour of Mary. The clergy usually added this 'Little Office of Our Lady' to the end of each part of the divine office. This division into eight hours - matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers and compline - was retained when the text was incorporated into the book of hours.
The Seven Penitential Psalms were selected for their suitability to express remorse for committed sins and to implore forgiveness. The Office of the Dead consists of the prayers said by the clergy during the vigil at the bier of the deceased. To laymen it was first and foremost a text used to commemorate deceased loved ones, and to shorten their stay in Purgatory.

Apart from this core the book of hours consists of a number of standard elements. They are a calendar at the beginning of the book indicating the most important feasts of the year and the saints to be commemorated. On the basis of locally venerated saints it is sometimes possible to determine the place where the patron lived - and hence the place where the manuscript was possibly made. In most books of hours there is also a series of short supplications to saints, called suffrages. Books of hours from the Southern Netherlands typically have four short texts from the Gospels and a series of Hours for the Seven Days of the Week, each followed by a mass.

The Trivulzio Book of Hours

Nothing is known about the medieval owner of this book of hours, nor does the manuscript contain coats of arms or mottos that might indicate the patron. However, the unknown owner disposed of the means to commission a precious book of hours, and he had an impeccable taste. In his book the miniatures and other illuminations were made by three of the foremost painters of his time, Lieven of Lathem from Antwerp, Simon Marmion from Valenciennes, and an anonymous illuminator, probably from Ghent, who is named Master of Mary of Burgundy. The latter might be called 'the Rembrandt of medieval illuminators'.

The manuscript is rather small, measuring 13 x 9 centimetres. However, this size was not uncommon in the time when it was produced. A book of hours made for Mary of Burgundy and her husband Maximilian of Austria, which is now kept in Berlin, measures only 10,3 x 7 centimetres. Because the space for text on the page was limited, this kind of book had a large number of pages: the Trivulzio Book of Hours has 382. Unlike modern books it is not paged but foliated, which is the usual practise in medieval manuscripts. This means that each leaf (each folio) is numbered, and that the front side is indicated by recto, and the reverse by verso. While books of hours from the Northern Netherlands are often in the vernacular, Middle Dutch, those from the Southern Netherlands are almost without exception in Latin.

The contents of the Trivulzio Book of Hours are a calendar; the hours of the Seven Days of the Week, each followed by a mass; sixteen prayers to saints; three special prayers to Mary: the Stabat Mater, the Obsecro Te and the O Intemerata; four short pieces from the Gospels; the Hours of the Virgin; the Seven Penitential Psalms; and the Office of the Dead. The feast days in the calendar are of a general nature and contain no clues for a closer localisation. The texts of the Hours of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead follow the general use of Rome. Therefore, an indication for the place of production must be derived from the illuminations.

The illumination

The Trivulzio Book of Hours is richly illuminated with 28 full-page miniatures and 16 historiated initials with painted images. The miniatures serve the dual purpose of dividing the text and indicating the beginning of the different parts. Some of the miniatures contain a direct illustration of the text. Thus, each of the texts from the four Gospels is preceded by a portait of the Evangelist in question, and the Mater Dolorosa prayer by an image of the Pietà. In other cases there is a looser relationship. The text of the Hours of the Virgin consists of psalms and hymns that bear little relation to Mary. In spite of the lack of a narrative content, it became use to place a series of images from the life of Mary and the infancy of Christ at the beginning of the eight parts.

The miniatures were made by three important illuminators, two of whom worked in Flanders, and the other in Northern France. The major part of the miniatures were made by Lieven of Lathem. He was admitted to the painters' guild of Ghent in 1454, but within two years he became involved in a disagreement with the guild's board about the payment of his master debts, after which he was removed. In 1462 he became a member of the Saint Lucas guild at Antwerp, where he was to stay until his death in 1493.
Lieven of Lathem was one of the foremost painters of his time. He got commissions by the dukes Philip the Good and Charles the Bold of Burgundy, by Anton of Burgundy and Louis of Gruuthuse. Apart from a number of books of hours, he also illustrated large historical works and romances, such as Froissart's Chroniques and the romance of Giles de Trasignies. His work is marked by elaborate panoramic landscapes with an atmospheric perspective changing into light blue at the horizon, and by gothic churches, the architecture of which is shown in great detail. His use of colours is remarkable, clear colours being used subtly side by side.

A second painter, Simon Marmion, executed nine miniatures, eight for each of the parts of the Hours of the Virgin, and one at the beginning of the Penitential Psalms. Simon Marmion was one of the most famous Northern French painters of his time. He was born in Amiens around 1425 as a member of a family of artists. After a first period in his hometown he moved to Valenciennes in 1458, where he would remain until his death. He was not only an illuminator but made large panel paintings, one of which, the Altar of St. Bertin, has survived and is now kept in Berlin.

The third artist who contributed a miniature to the book of hours is the Master of Mary of Burgundy, an anonymous illuminator who takes his name from a book of hours he executed for duchess Mary. In the Trivulzio manuscript he painted the miniature of the Crucifixion for the Friday Hours of the Holy Cross. For a book of hours to contain some miniatures by different masters was not unusual. Probably the patrons of manuscripts were keen on also having the work of some other famous painters in their book of hours.

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek possesses the largest collection of illuminated manuscripts in the Netherlands. Of the c.450 illuminated manuscripts, some 300 contain figurative representations, while the others are embellished with painted decorations and/or penwork. The total number of images is c.8000, varying from painted miniatures and drawings to historiciated initials and marginal scenes, and covering all imaginable subjects. The largest group consists of the c.250 books of hours and prayer books, which are usually illustrated with images from the lives of the Virgin Mary and Christ. Christian themes are further to be found in a number of History Bibles, in one of which the entire Old an New Testaments are illustrated by more than 500 images, and in liturgical manuscripts that were used in services. Among the other illuminated manuscripts world chronicles, encyclopaedias and literary works occupy an important place. Recently, the KB has paid much attention to providing digital access to this often very fragile material. On the website Illuminated Manuscripts (www.kb.nl/manuscripts) , almost 11,000 unique images are shown from 400 medieval illuminated manuscripts from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Museum Meermanno in The Hague.
The book of hours the KB has now received is an extraordinary valuable addition to the collection of Southern Netherlandish manuscripts, both because of the special character of the manuscript and because of the exceptionally high quality of the images.