A Leaf from the Hours of Yolande of Flanders
Artist/Maker
DatesMade: Made ca 1353
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 10,9 x 8 cm
Inventory numberNMB 1696
AcqusitionGift of Sven Ericsson, Stockholm 1956
Other titlesTitle (en): A Leaf from the Hours of Yolande of Flanders Inventory title (sv): Blad ur Yolande de Flandres´ bönbok Alternative title: Horae ad usum parisiensem
DescriptionDescription: NMB 1696-1697 Two leaves from the Hours of Yolande of Flanders illuminated by Jean and Bourgot le Noir. [Paris, c.1353-1363] Catalogue raisonné: NMB 1696-1697 Two leaves from the Hours of Yolande of Flanders illuminated by Jean and Bourgot le Noir. [Paris, c.1353-1363] Physical Description MATERIAL: Gouache and shell gold on parchment. DIMENSIONS: 109 × 80 mm. NUMBER OF LEAVES: 2. FOLIATION: Unknown. RULING: 11 lines. LANGUAGE: Latin. SCRIPT: Gothic textura RUBRICATION: Rubrics in blue and gold. Text NMB 1696 Initial D Deus, qui de beatae Mariae virginis utero NMB 1697 Initial A Adsit nobis, quaesumus Domine. NMB 1696 part of Terce, NMB 1697 part of Matins and Te deum Sister leaves 1. London, British Library, Yates Thompson 27. 2. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Dep. a. 1. Decoration The manuscript is throughout written with azure and gold lettering. The full foliate borders are coloured in blue, red and gold. NMB 1696 recto has a clerk in the initial A. He is sitting down and wearing brown robes and a cap. The clerk is writing a book. NMB 1696 verso has an angel inside an initial D. The angel sits looking to its right. It has white wings and curly blonde hair and wears a white robe. The angel holds a small portable organ in its hands and holding it to its left. NMB 1697 recto has a small rabbit or hare on the sixth line. NMB 1697 verso has a head appearing in the initial of line nine. At the bottom of the leaf, a woman is emerging from the right border. She is wearing a white wimple and a light brown dress. Cradled in her arms is a small infant with curly hair who is tightly swaddled. Provenance Parent volume 1. Manuscript made for Yolande of Flanders c.1353-1363. 2. Owned by Yolande of Flanders until 1372. 3. Owned by Charles V of France from 1372 until his death in 1380. 4. Owned by John Boykett Jarman in the first half of the 19th century. 5. Manuscript flooded in Jarman’s basement in London in 1846. 6. Bought by John Ruskin from Jarman in c.1854. 7. John Ruskin breaks up the manuscript 13 leaves given to Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford. 8. Other parts given to Lawrence Jermyn Hilliard in the last quarter of the 19th century. 9. Main part of manuscript bought by Henry Yates Thompson in 1901. 10. This part of the manuscript bequeathed to the British Museum by Mrs. Henry Yates Thompson in 1941. Present leaves 1. John Ruskin gave the leaves to Lawrence Jermyn Hilliard in the last quarter of the 19th century. 2. The leaves stayed in the Hilliard family until M. E. Hilliard sold the cuttings at the Sotheby auction on the 16th of May 1955 as lot 77. 3. Brought by Sven Ericsson from Stockholm for £220. 4. Gift to the Nationalmuseum by Sven Ericsson, Stockholm in 1956. Exhibited 1. Copenhagen, National Museum, Gyldne Böger, April-May 1952. 2. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Gyllenne böcker, May-September 1952. 3. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Gyllene böcker. Nyförvärv och nyupptäckter, December 1987-March 1988. Commentary NMB 1696-1697 are two leaves taken from the Hours of Yolande of Flanders. Most of the manuscript now resides in the British Library as Yates Thompson 27. The manuscript was illuminated by Jean le Noir (fl.1335-1380) and/or by his daughter Bourgot. This manuscript is related to other royal books of hours illuminated by the father/daughter team including the Hours of Jeanne de Navarre and the Hours of Bonne of Luxembourg. It seems that the manuscript was made for Yolande of Flanders (1326-1395), daughter of Robert de Cassel and Joan of Brittany, for, or after, her marriage to Philippe of Navarre (†1363), Count of Longueville and son of Queen Jeanne II of Navarre. The Hours of Jeanne de Navarre, also illuminated by Jean and Bourgot le Noir, were made for Yolande’s mother-in-law. Yolande was arrested by the king of France for her own imprisonment of her relatives. She was imprisoned in the Temple in Paris, from where she escaped in 1372, leaving her Book of Hours behind. This was then owned by King Charles V of France (r.1364-1380) and in his inventory at his death as no.3306 (Delisle 1907). The next owner we know of was the London goldsmith and book collector, John Boykett Jarman (1782-1864). A great storm happened in London in 1846 that flooded his house and damaged his manuscripts including the Hours of Yolande of Flanders, as well as the Butler Hours, see NMB 1726-1727 (Backhouse 1968). The manuscript was then sold to John Ruskin (1819-1900) the art critic and major influence on the Pre-Raphaelite movement social critic in c. 1854. Ruskin then gave 13 leaves to the Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford, now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Dep. a. 1. It would seem likely that Ruskin gave the cuttings that now make up NMB 1696-1697 to his secretary Lawrence Jermyn Hilliard (1855-1887) (Dearden 2012). The main manuscript was then bought by Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), book collector and newspaper proprietor in 1901. It was then bequeathed to the British Museum by Mrs. Henry Yates Thompson in 1941. Meanwhile, NMB 1696-1697 stayed in the Hilliard family until M. E. Hilliard sold the cuttings at the Sotheby auction on the 16th of May 1955 as lot 77. They were brought by Sven Ericsson for Stockholm for £220. Bibliography Abel, Ulf, and Nils Göran Hökby (eds.), Gyllene böcker. Nyförvärv och nyupptäckter (Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1987), no. 38, p. 43. Backhouse, Janet, ‘A Victorian Connoisseur and His Manuscripts: The Tale of Mr. Jarman and Mr. Wing’ in The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 3/4 (Spring, 1968), pp. 76-92. Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle, The Book of Hours of Yolande of Flanders: A Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson (London: Whittingham at the Chiswick Press, 1905). Dearden, J.S., The Library of John Ruskin (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 2012), p. 180. Delisle, Léopold, Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V, 2 vols (Paris: Champion, 1907), I, no. XXXI, pp. 214-18. Detailed record for Yates Thompson 27 at the British Library, https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=6440&CollID=58&NStart=27 Gludovatz, Karin and Michaela Krieger, ‘La contesse de Bar, Jean le Noir, enlumineur, et Bourgot, sa fille, enlumineresse de livres: zu Konzeption und Ausführung der Heures de Flandre’ in Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, 64 (2003), pp. 83-124. Nordenfalk, Carl, Bokmålningar från medeltid och renässans i Nationalmusei samlingar (Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1979), nr 15, pp. 68-69. Reynolds, Catherine, ‘Makers of Royal Manuscripts: Court Artists in France and the Netherlands’, in 1000 Years of Royal Books and Manuscripts, ed. by Kathleen Doyle and Scot McKendrick (London: The British Library, 2013), 131-48, p. 136. Rouse, Richard H. and Mary A. Rouse, Manuscripts, and their Makers: Commercial Book Producers in Medieval Paris 1200-1500, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 2000), I, p. 266. Sandgren, Eva Lindqvist, Illuminated Manuscripts in Swedish Collections, https://www.alvin-portal.org/alvin/resultList.jsf?dswid=7830&p=1&searchType=EXTENDED&sortString=creationYear_sort_asc&noOfRows=10&af=%5B%22ARCHIVE_ORG_ID_facet%3A67%22%5D&query=&aq=%5B%5B%7B%22HOST%22%3A%22alvin-record%3A471052%22%7D%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D Research project 2022-2023, Illuminated Manuscript, Christian Etheridge, Art Historian.
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