May | 2021 | Lions and Lilies

By Catherine T Wilson

Last week I gave myself the task of cleaning/clearing out my bookshelf. It runs down one wall of my studio and turns a corner for another metre. There are three shelves and they are all full. Needless to say that I did not finish my task in one day. In truth, I managed only one shelf before becoming completely distracted with the wonderful creations I was handling.

By now I had found a little book, so tiny it fit into the palm of my hand—probably the smallest in my collection—and I sat thumbing through the wonderful decorations on pages that concertinaed out to a long strand, each section brightly coloured. I immediately recognised two knights who were striking a priest at the altar and decided that must be the unfortunate Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

Other pictures were of saints, some mystical beasts, but mostly all had religious overtones.

Not surprising, since I was looking at a Book of Hours from the Clifford Collection but imagine my surprise when I discovered the original version dating back to medieval times, actually lives right here in Australia! So, what is the ‘Clifford Collection’ and more perplexing, what exactly is a Book of Hours?

From ‘Little Treasures Book of Hours’ :-

‘Created more than 500 years ago, Books of Hours like this one were religious books with devotional text, illuminated illustrations and decorative initial letters and borders, for the purpose of providing a comforting daily cycle of prayers, hymns and inspirational stories. They were designed to help their owners navigate the stony road from birth to death so as to live a good Christian life.

Books of Hours were written on vellum (fine calfskin) and were fashionable accessories for the pious well-to-do, but more than that, they were cherished daily companions, as the well-thumbed pages of many remaining exhibits show. The Latin text is accompanied by exquisite miniatures, illuminated with gold-leaf which was painstakingly applied by hand to halos, borders and details in the decorative backgrounds.

The term ‘illumination’ gradually came to refer to the entire image and not just the gold (or silver) highlights. The colourful and animated pictures deal with subjects such as the life of Christ and the saints. In this example, the unnamed artist has depicted well-known religious ‘events’ such as Christ being nailed to the cross, the murder of St Thomas of Canterbury (ah, I thought so! – CT) and St George slaying the dragon.

Each picture is thus more than just a visual treat. It has strong story-telling elements which captivate the eye and draw the reader into the tale being told. Each sumptuous illumination, and the decorated initial letter which accompanies it, still retains the vibrancy of the original artwork. While we may smile at the artist’s naïve depiction of the oversized king in the castle in the picture of St George, there is no doubt that the beautifully composted illustrations, symbolic details and bold colours capture the imagination of the reader as much now and they did all those years ago.’

I also have to think that the pictures would assist the folk who could not read, so people less educated could also own and enjoy one of these treasures which were known to be best sellers.

JEANNE D’EVREAUX’S BOOK OF HOURS

There are many and varied versions, and here are two stunning examples. The first belonged to Jeanne d’Evreaux, Queen of France 1324 – 1328.

Without a trace of gold, it is still a work of exceptional artistry. The figures are rendered in delicate grisaille (shades of grey), giving them an amazingly sculptural quality. They are accented with rich touches of lilac and turquoise. There are twenty-five full-page paintings with paired images from the Infancy and Passion of Christ. In the margins, close to 700 illustrations depict the bishops, beggars, street dancers, maidens and musicians that people the streets of medieval Paris, as well as apes, rabbits, dogs and creatures of sheer fantasy.

Jeanne d’Evreux left this prayer book to King Charles V ( a character in the forthcoming Lions and Lilies book) and upon his death, the book entered the famous collection of his brother, Duc Jean de Berry.

THE BLACK BOOK OF HOURS

This illuminated prayer book was crafted in Bruges, Belgium in the 15^th century and is thought to have been commissioned by the court of Philippe the Good, Duc of Burgundy. (Grandson to Philippe the Bold in Lions and Lilies).

Each of the 121 pages were created by dyeing vellum parchment with iron gall ink, resulting in dark blue and black tones that are very unusual for prayer books. Unfortunately, due to the nature of iron gall ink, most of the book pages have corroded. Only the ones made with very thick parchment survive to the present day and they are preserved by the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.

But the elaborate dyeing process in only part of the wonder of the ‘Black Hours.’ Much of its value lies in the outstanding Late Gothic manuscript illumination, featuring gold and silver lettering and rare ultramarine pigment, which at the time, was worth more than the gold.

The book contains the illuminated text of the Hours of the Holy Spirit, the Hours of the Cross, the Mass of the Virgin, the Office of the Dead and the Penitential Psalms. Words of each prayer are spelled out according to the Roman version of hours and divided in rows of fourteen lines.

Miniatures found on the left of each page represent episodes from the life of Jesus and the Virgin.

There is no indication as to the artist in the ‘Black Book’ but art historians think it may be the work of renowned illuminator Wellem Yrelant who was famous for crafting angular and linear figures similar to the ones found within the Hours pages.

A FINAL NOTE ON THE CLIFFORD COLLECTION

The Clifford family of Chudleigh, Devon, were a cadet branch of the great medieval family of Clifford, who came to England at the time of the Norman Conquest. Throughout the decades, they have held high offices from parliamentarian and advisor to King Charles II to Lord High Treasurer until the 1772 Test Act which made the holding of public office conditional on taking Anglican communion. Since the Cliffords had always been Roman Catholics, they were now debarred from holding public office or sitting in the House of Lords until the Catholic Relief Act was passed in 1829. It was during their banishment that they managed and developed their estate, wrote histories and other scholarly works, collected artworks, manuscripts, books and pamphlets.

The collection, assembled over three centuries, contains over 10,000 volumes and 1500 pamphlets (about 6,430 titles) written in English, Latin, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Covering every topic imaginable, some of the better-known names of the writers are Francis Bacon, Charles Darwin, Samuel Johnson, Isaac Newton, John Milton, Jonathon Swift, Dante Alighieri, Molière, and Voltaire.

It contains medieval manuscripts, seven of which are illuminated. They are devotional works – Bibles, books of hours including the one featured above, a prayer book, a breviary, and a psalter (a book of psalms – sacred songs or hymns). The items came from England, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands between the 13^th and 15th centuries and is the largest family collection to be acquired by the National Library of Australia, Canberra.

When the time is right for travel again, I shall most certainly be paying Canberra a visit!

Cathy T

Catherine A Wilson co-writes with Catherine T Wilson (no relation). Their first book, The Lily and the Lion, was based upon their true-life accidental meeting and resulting friendship. All four books in their ‘Lions and Lilies’ series have won first place prizes in the Chatelaine/Chaucer Awards in the US and in 2019, The Traitor’s Noose won the Grand Prize Chaucer Award.