Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Historiated Initial with the Miracle of the Children in the Oven
  • Creator:
  • Description: The Neville of Hornby Hours was a family manuscript intended for personal use. Some of the illustrations in the book were designed to appeal to a young reader, potentially the daughter or granddaughter of Isabel de Byron. This historiated initial D(eus) at the beginning of Sext depicts a scene from the Apocryphal Infancy miracles, a selection of miraculous deeds performed by the infant Christ that do not fall within the standard repertoire of Gospel Infancy subjects and stories. Wishing to prevent their children from playing with the young Jesus, parents shut their children in an oven. According to the account, Jesus asks what is in the oven and is told that it contains pigs. At that moment, the children are magically transformed into pigs. To the left of the initial, a woman having seen her transfigured children tears her hair in a gesture of distress.
  • Source: British Library
  • Rights: Public domain
  • Subject (See Also): Apocryphal Literature Books of Hours Children Jesus Christ- Infancy Miracles 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 http://molcat1.bl.uk/illcat/record.asp?MSID=8838&CollID=28&NStart=2781
  • Current Location: London, British Library, Egerton MS 2781, fol. 13r
  • 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): 17 cm/11 cm/
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Katherin 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, pg. 267-8