A French verse Passion written in Northern France between 1465 and 1475. According to Nicole Crossley-Holland, the text functions as an Hours of the Passion for Franciscan use, with each miniature delineating a new Hour. This is the earliest known within a group of three similar manuscripts, and the only one with miniatures. The other two manuscripts are Paris, BN Fonds Francais 190 (from the library of Louis de Bruges, ca. 1480) and Chantilly, Musée Condé 141 (France, ca. 1480). Crossley-Holland dates this manuscript to between 1467 and 1469, and notes that the last two stanzas in the Boston copy, on f. 23, are unique, and probably were not written by the author of the text. The terminus post quem of 1467 is based first on her attribution of the manuscript illumination to Bruges, and secondly on the residence there by 1467 of French court scribe David Aubert, who Crossley-Holland suspects may have been the scribe of the BPL manuscript. Although a close examination of Aubert's handwriting indicates that the script of the BPL manuscript differs from Aubert's, the BPL script resembles Dutuit Ms 456 (Histoire du bon Roi Alexandre). Crossley-Holland attributes the script of the Dutuit manuscript to Aubert; it was authored by Aubert, not written by him.

Ms. codex.

In French.

Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.

Secundo folio: Regarde pecheur / Comment ton seigneur ...

Collation: Parchment, fol. 23 ; 1-2⁸ 3⁶⁺¹ (fol. 17 is a singleton) ; modern pencil foliation in arabic numerals.

Leaf [1a]: Pour mal euiter / excerciter / En bien ses pensees ... ; leaf [23a]: Des pechiez q font mort amere

Layout: One column, twelve lines (two six-line stanzas per page, with 18 mm between). Bounding lines red plummet, full-length to all sides, initial column doubled, writing lines red plummet.

Script: Written in a bâtarde script in brown ink.

Decoration 1: Half-page grisaille miniature at the beginning of each hour, seven in all, the first signed "A.F." (Anthonin Fieret?)

Decoration 2: Each Hour begins with a two-line initial (seven in all). The first is blue with white filigree on gold with infill in colors, full margin of scrolling acanthus with flowers and gold berries. The other six are gold with mauve infill on blue background or with blue infill on mauve background. Each stanza begins with one-line gold initial alternating blue with mauve background or vice versa. Verse capitals are stroked yellow.

Binding: In modern, limp vellum preservation binding housed in a tan cloth box with the previous binding of French red morocco by Ch[arles] De Samblanx, 1921 (signed and dated on inner front turn-in), black embossed and tooled front and back central panel of trinity (Father enthroned in central medallion, Son and Holy Ghost above and below in smaller medallions), spine tooled in compartments with gold-stamped lettering, gold fillet turn-ins and single-fillet board edges, all edges gilt, parchment pastedowns (original flyleaves).

Origin: Written in Northern France between 1465 and 1475.

Provenance: Acquired by Boston Public Library in 1954 (see acquisition note in lower margin on f. 1: "Josiah H. Benton Fund/ April 1 1954/ 033"), from Maggs (cat. 812, 1953, n. 17; SDBM 19354).

Call number: MS q Med. 129.

Former call number: BPL MS 1551.

For published descriptions, see: J. Hamburger, et al., eds. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. (Chesnut Hill: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2016) no. 137; More Books/BPL Quarterly VII (1955), pp. 77-78; Crossley-Holland, N. A Fifteenth-Century Franciscan French office : translation and commentary of the Hours of Passion (Medieval Studies, Vol. 4), (Lewiston, 1991).

Bond, W.H. Supplement to the Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, page 214

1. fol. 1-8v: [Matins] The Betrayal. Christ in a crowd of Roman soldiers, Judas at his right cheek, Peter with sword drawn over the kneeling Malchus, whose breastplate is signed "A.F."

2. fol. 9-10v: [Lauds] Christ before Herod. In a regal interior with door opening at left, Herod enthroned at right, Christ presented by crowd of soldiers.

3. fol. 11-12v: [Prime] The Flagellation. Christ in the center of the scene, lashed to column, two soldiers each hold a binding rope in inner hand, raised instrument of torture in outer hand.

4. fol. 13-14v: [Terce] The Road to Calvary. Christ, led on rope by guard, carries the cross through a crowd of guards.

5. fol. 15-16v: [Sext] The Crucifixion. Christ on cross in center, flanked by the Virgin at left, John at right, themselves flanked by crucified thieves.

6. fol. 17-20: [Nones] The Deposition. Mary Magdalene kneels at left, the Virgin kisses Jesus' hand as one man uses tongs to remove a nail from his feet, another, on a ladder, unties one hand, and a third holds and brings him down from the cross.

7. fol. 20v-23r: [Vespers] The Entombment. Christ lays on the shroud on the sarcophagus, his head and feet held by two men. The Virgin mourns, comforted by Mary Magdalene and various nimbed and cloaked apostles.

8. fol. 23v: blank.

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