|
The Bedford Hours is a French late medieval book of hours. It dates to the early fifteenth century (c. 1410-1430); some of its miniatures (including the portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford) have been attributed to the Bedford Master and his workshop in Paris. The Duke and Duchess of Bedford gave the book to their nephew Henry VI in 1430.〔McKendrick 2011, p. 398〕 It is in the British Library, catalogued as Add. MS 18850. ==History== The manuscript was produced over several stages, including new material that was added as the manuscript passed from owner to owner.〔"Add MS 18850" on the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts website〕 The origins of the manuscript are not known with certainty, nor is there agreement on its initial patron. The inclusion of certain heraldic symbols in its decorative programme may suggest an original patronage in the French royal family, perhaps the dauphin, Louis of Guyenne (d. 1415).〔Stirnemann and Rabel 2005, p. 537〕〔McKendrick 2011, p. 399〕 Or this first stage in production might have taken place later, after Louis's death, the heraldic symbols having no immediate reference to patronage, but simply being part of the standard iconographic programme of the workshop.〔König 2007, pp. 76-77〕 In the early 1420s the manuscript was in the possession of John of Lancaster, the Duke of Bedford and regent of France on behalf of his nephew Henry VI from 1422 until his death in 1435. In 1423, he gave the manuscript to his wife Anne of Burgundy as a wedding present.〔Spencer 1965, p. 496〕 Personalizing additions to the manuscript's illumination that commemorate its ownership by the Duke and Duchess of Bedford include two large portrait miniatures (ff. 256v and 257v), showing John kneeling before St George and Anne of Burgundy kneeling before St Anne.〔Backhouse 1990, p. 37〕 In 1430 Anne gave the manuscript as a Christmas present to the nine-year-old Henry VI, who was staying with the Bedfords in Rouen before his coronation as king of France.〔Backhouse 1990, p. 59〕 This gift was memorialized in the manuscript itself, on f. 256r, in an inscription made at the duke's request, written by John Somerset, Henry's tutor and personal physician.〔Backhouse 1990, pp. 59-61〕 It is possible that it was in preparing the book as a gift to Henry that the portrait miniatures of the Bedfords were added, along with other additions to the programme of illumination. Later owners include King Henry II of France and his wife Catherine de' Medici (identifiable by their coats of arms, added to the manuscript), and Frances Worsley (1673-1750), wife of Sir Robert Worsley, 4th baronet of Appuldurcombe. Edward Harley probably purchased the manuscript from Frances Worsley, but he did not will it to his widow with the rest of the Harley collection, instead bequeathing it directly to his daughter, Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, who sold it in 1786. The manuscript was purchased by the British Museum in 1852, and currently forms part of the British Library's collection of Additional manuscripts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bedford Hours」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|