Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 12708
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Smith , Kathryn A.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: The Neville of Hornby Hours and the Design of Literate Devotion
  • Source URL: Art Bulletin (Full Text via JSTOR) 81,1 (March 1999): 72-92. Link Info target = '_blank'>Art Bulletin (Full Text via JSTOR) 81,1 (March 1999): 72-92. Link Info
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Painting Books of Hours Complaint of Our Lady, Anglo-French Prose Devotional Work Devotional Literature Gospel of Nicodemus, Anglo-French Prose Devotional Work Illumination of Manuscripts Isabel de Byron, Wife of Robert I de Neville of Hornby
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 14
  • Primary Evidence: Manuscript; London, British Library ms Egerton 2781, fol. 190r. Circa 1335-1340.
  • Illustrations: Twenty-seven figures. Figure One Neville of Hornby Hours, "Siege of Jerusalem, with Isabel de Byron between the arms of Neville of Hornby and Byron," English, circa 1335-40 (London, British Library ms Egerton 2781, fol. 190r). Figure Two Neville of Hornby Hours, "Isabel de Byron and Robert de Neville before Saint Anne Teaching the Virgin," fol 42r. Figure Three Neville of Hornby Hours, "Isabel de Byron Adoring Christ Crucified," fol. 27v. Figure Four Neville of Hornby Hours, "Isabel de Byron and Daughter at Prayer," fol 122v. Figure Five Neville of Hornby Hours, "Crucifixion," fol. 49r. Figure Six "Complaint of Our Lady/Gospel of Nicodemus," text page, English, late fourteenth century (London, British Library ms Royal 20. B.V., fol. 155v). Figure Seven Somme le roi, "Chastée" and "Luxure," French, late thirteenth century (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum ms 368). Figure Eight Neville Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," text page, fol. 134r. Figure Nine Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Last Supper," fol. 134v. Figure Ten Neville of Hornby Hours, "Miracle of the Children in the Oven with Young Female Book Owner in the Margin," fol. 88v. Figure Eleven Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Betrayal of Christ," fol. 138r. Figure Twelve Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Christ before Pilate," fol. 147v. Figure Thirteen Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Liberation of Joseph of Arimathaea," fol. 172r. Figure Fourteen Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Raising of the Cross," fol. 156r. Figure Fifteen Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, and Soldiers," fol. 157v. Figure Sixteen Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Christ Crucified between the Thieves," fol. 159r. Figure Seventeen Neville Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Christ Crucified with the Virgin, Saint John, and Longinus," fol. 161v. Figure Eighteen Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Breaking of the Thieves' Legs, fol. 162v. Figure Nineteen Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Deposition," fol. 164r. Figure Twenty Queen Mary Psalter, "Way to Calvary" through "Raising of the Cross," English, circa 1310-20 (London, British Library ms Royal 2.B. VII, fol. 253r.) Figure Twenty-one Queen Mary Psalter, "Crucifixion," fol. 256v. Figure Twenty-two Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Phineas and Addas Recount the Ascension of Christ ," fol. 178v. Figure Twenty-three Rothschild Canticles, "Seer and Trinity," Franco-Flemish, circa 1300 (New Haven, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University ms 404, fols. 93v-94r. Figure Twenty-four Barlow Psalter, "Noli me tangere; Doubting Thomas; Ascension; and Pentecost," English, circa 1321-38 (Oxford, Bodleian Library ms Barlow 22, fol. 14r.) Figure Twenty-five Maquette for Honoré Bouvet, "Somnium super materia schismatis," French, 1395 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale ms lat. 14643, fol. 270v.) Figure Twenty-six Neville of Hornby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," "Disappearance of Carinus and Leucius," fol. 189r. Figure Twenty-seven Neville of Honrby Hours, "Complaint/Gospel," final text page, fol. 189v.
  • Table:
  • Abstract: This study analyzes image-text relationships in an illustrated vernacular devotional work, the Anglo-French "Complaint of Our Lady/Gospel of Nicodermus," part of a profusely illuminated book of hours commissioned about 1335-40 by a female member of the English Gentry. It is argued that certain features of the manuscript's design and illustration structured and enhanced the religious experience of the "devotionally literate" reader. Further, the study suggests how the patron might have used this illustrated text to educate her daughter in the fundamentals of literate devotion. [Reproduced by permission of the College Art Association.]
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  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1999.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 00043079
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