File:Book of Hours, Use of Paris (The Susanna Hours) (IA 1945 65 9).pdf

Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, 1945‑65‑9. France, Originally made for the woman depicted on fol. 117r; early 16th century. This Book of Hours of the Use of Paris is known as the Susanna Hours on account of its unusual cycle of twelve large miniatures narrating the story of Susanna, each of which is accompanied by a set of five rhyming AABBA verses in French, consisting of unique translations of chapter thirteen of the Book of Daniel. The book begins with a calendar in French (fols. 1r-6v), followed by the Gospel Lessons (fols. 7v-11r) with a full-page miniature of John on Patmos in a classicizing architectural frame (fol. 7r) and smaller miniatures for the readings from Luke (fol. 8v), Matthew (fol. 9v), and Marc (fol. 10v). The Passion According to John (fols. 12r-18v) begins with a large miniature showing the Agony in the Garden (fol. 12r). It and the subsequent large miniatures contain fictive scrolls with five lines of verse each, in French, written in a humanistic hand. The verses below the Agony in the Garden consist of a prayer to Christ's Passion, and are distinct from the subsequent Susanna cycle. The Hours of the Virgin, of the Use of Rome, is intercalated with the Hours of the Cross and the Hours of the Holy Spirit (fols. 19v-72r). However, instead of the habitual Infancy Narrative cycle, Crucifixion, and Pentecost, the large miniatures preceding each Hour pertain to the story of the biblical figure Susanna, narrating her false accusation by the Two Elders through to her redemption and their execution. The cycle illustrates: Susanna and her husband Joachim in a Garden with Attendants (fol. 19r), Susanna Disrobed at her Bath with two Attendants (fol. 34v), Susanna Threatened by the Two Elders (Matins for Hours of the Cross, fol. 42r), Susanna Discovered as she is given a Mirror and a Comb by an Attendant (Matins for Hours of the Holy Spirit, fol. 43v), Susanna Condemned by the Two Elders (fol. 45r), Susanna Brought before the Two Elders (fol. 50r), The Two Elders Bear False Witness against Susanna (fol. 54r), Susanna Appeals to the Lord (fol. 58r), Susanna's Death Procession Interrupted (fol. 62r), and Daniel Separates the Two Elders (fol. 67v). The following sections of the Book of Hours, habitually introduced by miniatures representing King David (for the Penitential Psalms, Litany, and Prayers, fols. 73v-85v) and a funeral scene (for the Office of the Dead, fols. 86v-116v), instead continue the Susanna narrative, with facing-page miniatures of Daniel Interrogating the Two Elders and Susanna Reunited with Joachim (fols. 72v-73r) and a single miniature of the Lapidation of the Two Elders to conclude the narrative (fol. 86r). The final sections of the book include the Obsecro te, O intemerata, Stabat Mater and a Prayer on the Conception of the Virgin (fols. 117v-123v), introduced by a large miniature showing a female donor before the Virgin and Child (fol. 117r) and smaller miniatures of the Virgin and Saint John at the Cross (fol. 119v), the Lamentation (fol. 121r), and the Meeting at the Golden Gate (fol. 122v). The following section, dedicated to suffrages (fols. 124v-136v), opens with a suffrage and a large miniature dedicated the Trinity (fol. 124r). It and the previous large miniature (fol. 117r) are also accompanied by illusionistic scrolls with thematic verses in French. The subsequent suffrages are dedicated to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and Saints Michael, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Paul, James, All Apostles, Stephen, Lawrence, Sebastian, Denis, Anne, Mary Magdalene, Catherine, Margaret, Barbara, Geneviève, Apollonia, Jerome, Gilbert, René, Francis, Clare, and Elizabeth. Each is accompanied by small miniature. The final text consists of a Prayer to the Cross (fols. 137r-137v). The style of the illuminations is close to the so-called Master of Petrarch's Triumphs and suggests that the book was produced in Paris between about 1505 and 1520. Early provenance notes indicate that the book was in the possession of the Gamaches family by the mid-sixteenth century.