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The Grandes Heures de Rohan (French: ''The Grand Hours of Rohan''; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. Latin 9471; commonly known as The Rohan Hours) is an
illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
book of hours The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscrip ...
, painted by the anonymous artist known as the Rohan Master, probably between 1418 and 1425 (though other datings have been suggested), in the
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style. It contains the usual offices, prayers and litanies in Latin, along with supplemental texts, decorated with 11 full page, 54 half page, and 227 small miniatures, decorated with
tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...
paints and gold leaf. The book margins are decorated with
Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
miniatures with captions in
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
, in the style of a ''
Bible moralisée The , also known as the "Bible Historiée", the "Bible Allégorisée" and sometimes "Emblémes Bibliques", is a later name for the most important examples of the medieval picture bibles, called in general "biblia pauperum", to have survived. The ...
''. The full page illuminations are renowned for the highly emotional and dramatic portrayal of the agonies of Christ and the grief of the Virgin. According to Millard Meiss, "The Rohan Master cared less about what people do than what they feel. Whereas his great predecessors excelled in the description of the novel aspects of the natural world, he explored the realm of human feeling." Meiss concludes that the Rohan Master was the "greatest
expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
in 15th century France."Meiss, Millard, and Marcel Thomas. The Rohan Master: A book of hours. New York: G. Braziller, October 1973. 247 pages. The manuscript is currently housed in the
Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
,
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.


History


Patron

The Hours was probably commissioned by
Yolande of Aragon Yolande of Aragon (11 August 1384 – 14 November 1442) was Duchess of Anjou and Countess of Provence by marriage, who acted as regent of Provence during the minority of her son. She was a daughter of John I of Aragon and his wife Violant o ...
(also Iolanthe, Jolantha, and Violant), daughter of
Juan I of Aragon John I (27 December 1350 – 19 May 1396), called by posterity the Hunter or the Lover of Elegance, but the Abandoned in his lifetime, was the King of Aragon from 1387 until his death. Biography John was the eldest son of Peter IV and his third ...
, Duchess of Anjou (1380–1443) for her nephew, Charles, the
Dauphin of France Dauphin of France (, also ; french: Dauphin de France ), originally Dauphin of Viennois (''Dauphin de Viennois''), was the title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France from 1350 to 1791, and from 1824 to 1830. The word ''dauphin'' ...
. Yolande was the widow of Louis II, Duke of Anjou (reigned 1384–1417). In 1422, Yolande married her oldest daughter to Charles, in which case this book could have been commissioned as a wedding gift. Yolande was the protector and mentor of Charles, who would be crowned
Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of F ...
in 1429. Duchess Yolande was a strong supporter of
Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
.Adelheid Heimann. ''French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and Their Contemporaries by Millard Meiss'', in
The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation sin ...
, Vol. 119, No. 896, Special Issue Devoted to European Art Since 1890 (Nov., 1977), pp. 777–780
Walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf. ''Codices Illustres: The world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, 400 to 1600''. Köln, TASCHEN, 2005. An alternate theory suggests that The Hours was commissioned by the
House of Rohan The House of Rohan ( br, Roc'han) is a Breton people, Breton family of viscounts, later dukes and princes in the French nobility, coming from the locality of Rohan (commune), Rohan in Brittany. Their line descends from the viscounts of Porhoët ...
, as indicated by their arms shown on some of the pages (
blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...
: gules, in chief seven mascles d’or). The commission would have been made in 1431 to celebrate the marriage of
Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) i ...
,
Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
of
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
, to a daughter of
Alain IX Alain may refer to: People * Alain (given name), common given name, including list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Alain (surname) * "Alain", a pseudonym for cartoonist Daniel Brustlein * Alain, a standard author abbreviation u ...
of Rohan, however that marriage never took place. Other scholars suggest that Yolande of Aragon commissioned this book of hours for her daughter, which is unlikely, because the Latin prayers have masculine endings.Facsimiles of Illuminated Manuscripts in Special Collections
/ref>


Artists

As with many northern European artists of this period, the identity of the Rohan Master is shrouded in mystery. The Rohan Master was the anonymous illuminator who is named after this masterpiece of 15th-century illumination. Scholars assume that the Rohan Master headed a large, productive workshop that had the favor and patronage of the House of Anjou. The first studies of the miniatures indicated that the Rohan Master only painted 3 and a half of the full page miniatures. Since the Master illuminated so little of the book, it was not known whether he was a painter, or an entrepreneur. Meiss and Thomas ascribe ten of the eleven surviving full page miniatures to the Rohan Master, as well as three half page miniatures: folio 33v, Plate 36; f. 210, Pl. 79; and f. 217, Pl. 93. Meiss references altar panels that the Rohan Master had painted, proving he was more than an entrepreneur; he was a skilled painter of church art, as well as a dramatic miniaturist. There is another Book of Hours in the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
attributed to the master, plus a further one there and others elsewhere attributed to artists close to him.British Library
/ref> The BnF also has a
Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so we ...
by him and his workshop. The Rohan Master's miniatures are highly emotional. He used the angle of the face, hair, gestures, and draping of veils and clothing to convey his figures’ emotions. Such expressiveness was not usual in 15th-century France. Meiss suggests that the Rohan Master came from the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
, or
Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
, the homeland of his patroness, Yolande. The majority of the book was illuminated by workshop assistants. The full page ''Crucifixion'' (f. 27, Pl. 33) and the majority of the half page miniatures were probably done by a second, lesser illuminator in the workshop. The style of the workshop was greatly influenced by the
Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
and
Boucicaut Boucicaut may refer to: Persons * Jean I Le Maingre ( -1367), called "Boucicaut", Marshal of France * Jean II Le Maingre (1366-1421), son of Jean I, also called "Boucicaut", Marshal of France * Geoffrey Boucicaut, son of Jean I, governor of the D ...
Masters. And, the iconographic models for many of the assistants’ illuminations came from the
Limbourg Brothers The Limbourg brothers ( nl, Gebroeders van Limburg or Gebroeders Van Lymborch; fl. 1385 – 1416) were famous Dutch miniature painters (Herman, Paul, and Johan) from the city of Nijmegen. They were active in the early 15th century in Franc ...
, and the Angevin Bible, ''Bible moralisée''. The copied ''Bible moralisée'' illuminations in the margins were done rather quickly and imperfectly by two or three minor painters from the Rohan workshop.


Provenance

After Yolande's death, the manuscript passed to her son,
René of Anjou René of Anjou ( it, Renato; oc, Rainièr; ca, Renat; 1409–1480) was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples as René I from 1435 to 1442 (then deposed as the preceding dynasty was restored to ...
. In the early half of the 15th century, it was in the possession of Isabella Stuart,
Duchess of Brittany This is a list of rulers of the Duchy of Brittany. In different epochs the sovereigns of Brittany were kings, princes, and dukes. The Breton ruler was sometimes elected, sometimes attained the position by conquest or intrigue, or by hereditary r ...
(c. 1426–1494), who added her arms in the corners of folio 135r, left. Her youngest daughter, Mary of
Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
, married John II,
Viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...
of Rohan. The Hours may have passed to the House of Rohan at that time. In the 17th century, it was owned by the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
. In 1784, it was sold to the Royal Library by the Duke of La Vallière. Currently, The Rohan Hours is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.Fitzwilliam Museum
/ref>


Description

Vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...
, 239
folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
s, 11.4 x 8.3 in. (290 x 210 mm), with 11 full page, 54 half page, and 227 small miniatures, decorated with egg
tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...
colors and
gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...
. An Old Testament miniature is painted in the margin of each page, which does not have a full page miniature. Each Old Testament miniature has a caption in
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
. This marginal series forms a secondary book, a ''Bible moralisée''. Several folios are missing; the manuscript originally had 15 full page miniatures. The four missing full color pages are: ''The Nativity''; ''The Adoration of the Magi''; the first page of the ''Penitential Psalms'', usually depicting King David; and the first page of the ''Fifteen Joys of the Virgin'', usually depicting the Virgin.


Contents

The Book of Hours was the most popular type of personal devotional book among the laity in the later Middle Ages. The core contents of the Book of Hours is a simplified version of the Divine Office, the daily liturgy performed by monks at the 8 canonical hours of the day. The Book of Hours allowed the lay reader to engage in an imitation of monastic devotion, without conforming to the more rigorous and severe aspects of cloistered life. The abbreviated office was supplemented by a liturgical calendar, litanies and suffrages, special prayers to intercessors and selected psalms. Particularly lavish copies might supplement the standard Hours of Cross with the Hours of the Virgin. The contents of the Book of Hours range could be personalized to a great extent, depending on the financial resources of the owner. Apart from their devotional use, in the 15th century, a finely-illuminated Book of Hours also has a secondary use as an indicator of its owner's wealth and/or social standing. A lavishly-illuminated, personalized copy could easily exceed the cost of a large house in this period. Each Book of Hours begins with a liturgical calendar. The feasts of important saints are inscribed in red ink, hence the term, ''red letter day''. Each month is illustrated with a zodaical sign and a labor associated with that time of year. The particular saints included in the calendar can provide clues as to the area where the book was made, or the place where the book was intended to be used. Roger S. Wieck. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. New York: Braziller, 1988. By the beginning of the 15th century, the calendar was followed by a
Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
lesson from each of the evangelists. In The Rohan Hours, the Gospels are accompanied by
evangelist portrait Evangelist portraits are a specific type of miniature included in ancient and mediaeval illuminated manuscript Gospel Books, and later in Bibles and other books, as well as other media. Each Gospel of the Four Evangelists, the books of Matthew, ...
s, showing the Four Evangelists writing as medieval
scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...
s, and showing their symbols: John, an eagle; Luke, an ox; Matthew, an angel; and Mark, a lion. Observing the
canonical hours In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or selection from, such prayers. In ...
centered upon the recitation, or singing, of a number of
psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
, which are accompanied by prayers, specified by the eight hours of the liturgical day. The core text of a Book of Hours is the
Little Office of the Virgin The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as Hours of the Virgin, is a liturgical devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in imitation of, and usually in addition to, the Divine Office in the Catholic Church. It is a cycle of psalms, ...
. This series of hourly prayers was prayed to the Mother of God, who co-mediates and sanctifies the prayers to God. Two prayers, Obsecro te, "I beseech thee," and O intemerata, "O chaste one," were extremely popular. They are personal addresses to the Virgin. This was the logical place for the person, who commissioned the book, to include his or her portrait. The Latin masculine or feminine endings used in these personal prayers can provide a clue to the gender of the original owner. The Rohan Hours was intended for a male owner.Fitzwilliam Museum
/ref> At the beginning of each hour, the artists portrayed a standard cycle of illuminations, based on the life of the Virgin. The Rohan Hours contains ''
The Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...
'', ''The Visitation'', ''The Annunciation to the Shepherds'', '' The Presentation in the Temple'', ''The
Flight into Egypt The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew ( Matthew 2:13– 23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the i ...
'', and ''The
Coronation of the Virgin The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God th ...
''. ''The Nativity'' and ''The
Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...
'' from the cycle are presumed lost. The
Penitential Psalms The Penitential Psalms or Psalms of Confession, so named in Cassiodorus's commentary of the 6th century AD, are the Psalms Psalm 6, 6, Psalm 32, 31, Psalm 38, 37, Psalm 51, 50, Psalm 102, 101, Psalm 130, 129, and Psalm 143, 142 (6, 32, 38, 51, 102 ...
were recited to help one resist the temptation of committing any of the
Seven Deadly Sins The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings. Although they are not directly mentioned in the Bible, there are parallels with the seven things ...
. The prayers in the
Office of the Dead The Office of the Dead or Office for the Dead (in Latin, Officium Defunctorum) is a prayer cycle of the Canonical Hours in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church and Lutheran Church, said for the repose of the soul of a decedent. It is the proper r ...
were prayed to shorten the time a loved one spent in
Purgatory Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...
. Supplementary texts were added to celebrate any personal patron, family saint, special circumstances, or a fortuitous event. The Suffrages are short prayers to saints, asking them to intercede on behalf of the petitioner. The prayers were often accompanied by portraits of the saints, with the symbols or their martyrdom, or the attributes of their patronage. The Suffrages were arranged in a particular hierarchy: God, Christ, the Virgin Mary, the angels, Saint John the Baptist, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and women saints. This standard pattern of daily prayer provided the framework for the artists' efforts. This book of hours contains: :::A Calendar of feast days, :::Fragments of the four Gospels, :::Fragments of the Passion, :::Various prayers to Christ and the Virgin, :::The Five Sorrows of the Virgin, :::The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, :::The Seven
Penitential Psalms The Penitential Psalms or Psalms of Confession, so named in Cassiodorus's commentary of the 6th century AD, are the Psalms Psalm 6, 6, Psalm 32, 31, Psalm 38, 37, Psalm 51, 50, Psalm 102, 101, Psalm 130, 129, and Psalm 143, 142 (6, 32, 38, 51, 102 ...
, :::Various litanies and prayers, :::The Hours of the Cross, :::The Hours of the Holy Spirit, :::The Fifteen Joys of the Virgin, :::The Seven Petitions to Our Lord, :::Prayer to the True Cross, :::
Office of the Dead The Office of the Dead or Office for the Dead (in Latin, Officium Defunctorum) is a prayer cycle of the Canonical Hours in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church and Lutheran Church, said for the repose of the soul of a decedent. It is the proper r ...
, :::The Suffrages, a Memorial of the Saints, and :::Stabat Mater. On every page not occupied by a full page miniature, The Hours has a marginal scene from the Old Testament. As a whole, this series of marginal miniatures forms a secondary book, a ''
Bible moralisée The , also known as the "Bible Historiée", the "Bible Allégorisée" and sometimes "Emblémes Bibliques", is a later name for the most important examples of the medieval picture bibles, called in general "biblia pauperum", to have survived. The ...
''. Each marginal miniature depicts an
Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
scene that is somehow related to the principal
New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
picture on the same page. The purpose of the marginal scene was to show how the Old Testament paved the way for that particular New Testament scene, according to the theological theory called
typology Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ...
. Some marginal scene captions are mere descriptions of the biblical vignette. Other captions contain a ''moralization'' or short explanation of the moral of the scene, for the spiritual education of the reader; hence the name, ''Bible moralisée''. The Hours ends abruptly at the ''
Stabat Mater The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ's mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III.Sabatier, Paul ''Life o ...
''. Either the ending pages are missing, or more likely, this book of hours was never completed.


Text and script

The text is written according to the
use Use may refer to: * Use (law), an obligation on a person to whom property has been conveyed * Use (liturgy), a special form of Roman Catholic ritual adopted for use in a particular diocese * Use–mention distinction, the distinction between using ...
of Paris. The principal Latin text was written in Gothic script by two scribes. The first scribe has a somewhat unskilled hand; the second has a clear, elegant ''Parisian'' hand. The calendar text was written in red, gold, and blue ink, depending on the particular feast. The Gospels were written in alternating lines in blue, gold, and red inks. The text specific to the liturgical hours was written in Latin with black, and rarely blue, ink. In the margins, the ''Bible moralisée'' is written in
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
with black ink. The Latin prayers have masculine endings. Even though this book was commissioned by a woman, it was meant for use by a man.


Decoration

These volumes come from a period when Books of Hours were produced for their artistic and decorative effect. The Master's border decorations are delicate, foliate motifs reminiscent of the Anjou family's ''Bible moralisée''. The miniatures are stylistically similar to those of the '' Grandes Heures'' and the '' Belles Heures'', which Yolande purchased from her brother-in-law, the Duke de Berry's estate, after his death in 1416. The dark and dramatic tone of The Hours may reflect the tragic defeat of the French at
Battle of Agincourt The Battle of Agincourt ( ; french: Azincourt ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected English victory against the numerica ...
, 25 October 1415. The Rohan Master broke with convention by portraying the unexpected and the shocking. He illuminates the calendar in vertical boxes, which normally would contain the calendar text. In ''The
Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...
'' (f. 159, Pl. 61), the Master unexpectedly depicts Christ, identified by the wounds of his Passion, as an aged man on a rainbow. Perhaps, this was his attempt to show the
Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
in a new and different way. In ''The Coronation of the Virgin'' (f. 106v., Pl. 54), the coronation is not conducted by Christ, as was usually the case; rather, she is received by
God the Father God the Father is a title given to God in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, God the Son Jesus Christ, and the third person, God t ...
, while his angels honor her by reciting from the
liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
of the
Feast of the Assumption The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...
. The Master shows the glorious ''Resurrection of the Dead'' in a shocking way. The faithful are resurrected in the same state in which they had died: feeble infant, maiden, and infirm elder. This contradicts the 15th-century expectation that every Christian would be resurrected in a young, strong, beautiful body—in the prime of life. The Master's flat
landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...
and background are unconventional. The Master and his assistants did not take much interest in the developing depiction of three-dimensional space and naturalistic lighting found in most of the best quality manuscripts of this date. The Master was not interested in depicting realistic scenes. The backgrounds provide a stage for his emotionally expressive figures. Many seemingly plain blue backgrounds upon closer examination show a flurry of activity as a multitude of angels are discovered delicately traced in gold. He portrays profound emotions by using intense colors, comparing motion with stasis, and contrasting lean and plump figures. By contrasting beauty and joy with ugliness and pain, the Rohan Master creates a unique and dramatic spiritual art. The epitome of the Master's art is ''the Lamentation of the Virgin'' (f. 135, Pl. 57) from the Hours of the Cross section, of ''The Rohan Hours''. The grieving Virgin cannot be consoled by
Apostle John John the Apostle ( grc, Ἰωάννης; la, Ioannes ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ;) or Saint John the Beloved was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebedee a ...
, who looks up in consternation at a saddened God. The marginal ''Bible moralisée'' subject matter and treatment were based on a book in the possession of Yolande of Aragon, Duchess of Anjou. Her husband,
Louis II of Anjou Louis II (5 October 1377 – 29 April 1417) was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1384 to 1417; he claimed the Kingdom of Naples, but only ruled parts of the kingdom from 1390 to 1399. His father, Louis I of Anjouthe founder of the House of ...
, brought a ''Bible moralisée'' from
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, but it was probably made in
Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
. It is known as the ''Angevin Bible'' (Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. fr. 9561). There is no doubt the Rohan atelier assistants charged with decorating the margins used the Duke's book as their model. Not only was the subject matter copied from the ''Angevin Bible'', but the errors in the captions were copied, too.


Reproductions

In 1973, the publisher, George Braziller, produced a partial
facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...
. All the miniatures are reproduced in full color with gold. Millard Meiss provided an artistic and historical Introduction to the manuscript. The facsimile pages were accompanied with notes and commentaries by Marcel Thomas. This book was issued as a 247-page crimson cloth hardback. In 1994, the publisher, George Braziller, released a 248-page, hardback edition. In 2006, a complete color facsimile bound in leather, issued with a separate 377-page commentary in Spanish (Grandes Horas de Rohan) was produced by A y N Ediciones, Madrid, Spain.


References


Further reading

* Calkins, Robert G. ''Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages''. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983. * De Hamel, Christopher. ''A History of Illuminated Manuscripts''. New York: Phaidon Press, 1997.


External links


Grandes heures de Rohan






{{Authority control Illuminated books of hours Bibliothèque nationale de France collections 15th-century illuminated manuscripts