Manuscript Monday: New Acquisition – 15th-century Book of Hours and handwritten 19th-century companion volume

This week the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies received a great new acquisition, a 15-century Book of Hours and its 19th-century  companion volume. The Book of Hours was written in Latin, in France circa 1480, for the use of the Diocese of Toul (Lorraine). It is accompanied by a handwritten 19th-century companion volume/facsimile that Nick Herman of the Schoenberg Institute says “vividly narrates its rescue: ‘Ce manuscrit… était dans un état déplorable: relégué sur le haut d’une armoire, il gisoit dans la poussière parmi toute sorte de tracas; décousu, souillé, sans titre ni finis; ayant servi de jouet aux enfans; des filles du village avoient coupé des initiales de leur nom pour les coller dans leurs livres de prières…’” [This manuscript… Was in a deplorable condition; relegated to the top of a cupboard, it lay in the dust amid all sorts of tribulations; disbound, soiled, unlabeled and without a proper ending; it served as a toy for children; village girls had cut out the initials of their names and pasted them into their own prayer books.]

These items have not yet been cataloged by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.