Book of Hours

Description This Book of Hours was completed for Use of Reims ca. 1450-1475 in northeastern France. The book was first owned by Collette, who is portrayed on fol. 76r with the Virgin and Child. An inscription from 1559 on the back pastedown records later ownership by female owner G. Marlot, as well as by her aunt, née Labourgue, wife of the merchant Jean Bourguet, followed by G. Marlot's daughter, Martine Marlot. There is a large amount of unusual and specifically female content in the book, including a heightened amount of prayers to the Virgin, virgins listed in the calendar and litany, as well as the unusual inclusion of the Hours of St. Catherine. The manuscript also contains charming marginalia, most famously a garden party scene in which couples play music, and even games such as backgammon, together (fol. 16r).

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
11/27/1985	Treatment	stabilized
12/29/1988	Treatment	examined for exhibition; stabilized; other

Exhibitions

• Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984-1985.
• Saints and Their Symbols. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1985-1986.
• The Naked and the Nude. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1986.
• Real People in the Middle Ages: Donor Portraits in Illuminated Manuscripts. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1987.
• Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1988.
• Making Music in Medieval Manuscripts. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1988-1989.
• Decadent Decades: The Medieval Clothes Horse. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1989.
• Medieval Games of Love and War. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1995-1996.
• Music in Manuscripts. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1996-1997.
• Images of Devotion: Personal Piety in Medieval Manuscripts and Ivories. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1997.
• Checkmate! Medieval People at Play. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2010.
• Paradise Imagined: Images of the Garden in the Islamic and Christian World. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2012.
• A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 2016-2017.

Provenance Created for Collette, northeast France, ca. 1460 [1]. Acquired by Labourgue [2], early-mid 16th century; given to G. Marlot [3], ca. 1559; given to Martine Marlot [4]. Acquired by Léon Gruel, Paris, late 19th-early 20th century; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931. [1] Portrayed on fol. 76r [2] Wife of Jean Bourguet [3] Niece of previous owner [4] Daughter of previous owner and wife of Claude Armilhon

Inscriptions [Inscription] In gilt lettering on upper board: Claude/Armilhon; [Inscription] In gilt lettering on lower board: Martinne/Marlot; [Inscription] In gilt lettering on spine: Heures/Gotiques

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters