Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Miniature of the Christ Child Suckling a Crowned Virgin, (Virgo Lactens) with Joseph and angels
  • Creator:
  • Description: The Neville of Hornby Hours was a family manuscript intended for personal use. This manuscript page is one of twenty-three Latin Salutations of the Virgin included in the book. The subject of this illumination is the chaste fecundity of the Virgin. The Virgin, crowned and enthroned, nurses the Christ Child. The act of nursing in conjunction with the image of being crowned by angels was intended to emphasize both the humanity and the regality of the Virgin Mary. She twists her torso and angles Jesus on her lap in order to gaze down at the book owners. On the left side of the painting, Robert II de Neville, the son of Isabel de Byron and Robert I de Neville, kneels in supplication at the base of Mary’s throne while either his daughter or his sister stands behind him with a hand pressed to her breast in adoration.
  • Source: British Library
  • Rights: Public domain
  • Subject (See Also): Books of Hours Donor Portraits Madonna Lactans (Artistic Motif) Neville of Hornby Hours
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 14
  • Date: Second quarter of 14th C., possibly 4th decade
  • Related Work: Neville of Hornby Hours: http://molcat1.bl.uk/illcat/record.asp?MSID=8838&CollID=28&NStart=2781
  • Current Location: London, British Library Egerton MS 2781, fol. 12v
  • Original Location: England, S.E., possibly London
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Manuscript illuminations
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Vellum (parchment); Paint
  • Donor: Laywoman; Isabel de Byron, Wife of Robert I de Neville of Hornby Manor
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 170 mm/110 mm/
  • Inscription: Ave et gaude virgo maria q(uae) p(er) prolis fecunditate(m) (et) per illesa(m) virginitate(m) expers maledicionis legis signanter ex(s)titisti. Ave maria. [Hail and rejoice, Virgin Mary, who through the fertility of your childbirth and by your undamaged virginity, taking no part in the curse of the Law, stood forth significantly. Hail, Mary.]
  • Related Resources: Kathryn A. Smith, Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England: Three Women and their Books of Hours, British Library and University of Toronto Press, London, 2003, pp. 186-8