Vatican Book of Hours Vat. Lat. 3781 Facsimile Edition

The book of hours in the Vatican Library bearing the shelfmark Vat. lat. 3781 is a Christian prayer book of the highest artistic quality. It was unquestionably created as much as a work of art as an aid to private prayer. It was made around 1480-1485 at Tours, with illumination by painters in the circle of Jean Bourdichon. Its seventeen three-quarter-page miniatures with elaborately painted borders demonstrate the pervasive influence of the city's master.

The manuscript's text is a collection of prayer services, excerpts from the Gospels, and the Penitential Psalms, all preceded by a liturgical calendar. Large miniatures on Christian themes mark the divisions of the text into its constituent parts.

The Renaissance Close-Up

Compositions of half-length figures that fill the miniature and provide an intense devotional focus are a trademark of Jean Bourdichon's art. His followers took up this approach in the Vatican manuscript: the viewer is drawn into the scenes of Christ's infancy accompanying the Hours of the Virgin. In the miniature of the Flight into Egypt, for example, the mother (half-length) and child are the focus, with the donkey and Saint Joseph only partially in view (fol. 48r).

Golden Highlights

The illuminators used gold to highlight drapery and accentuate sumptuous garments. Gold also conveys the presence of divinity, as in the scene of the Nativity in which the Christ child emanates rays of gold (fol. 37v) and the representation of the Descent of the Holy Spirit with golden streaks extending from the dove to the assembled apostles (fol. 70r).

The Suffering Job

The Vatican manuscript boasts one of the first examples of the Old Testament figure Job as a subject for the Office of the Dead. The inspiration comes from the first elaborate chant of the prayer service of Matins, its text taken from Job: "I know that my redeemer lives, and in the last day I will rise out of the earth." The illuminator shows the pious Job, emaciated and the subject of accusations from his wealthy neighbors (fol 88v).

Segmented Border Decoration

The manuscript's painted borders are especially characteristic of books made at Tours. The borders are divided into geometric patterns defined by different background colors. They are populated by stylized acanthus leaves and naturalistically painted flowers, berries, birds, and insects.

An Elegant Script

The text was written by a single scribe in French Bâtarde, a refined formal version of an originally cursive script. Stylized vines on colored backgrounds form the dozens of decorated initials.

Entered the Vatican in the Seventeenth Century

The manuscript must have been in Italy by the sixteenth century when an Italian artist overpainted some of the original artwork (fols. 23r, 43r, 67v, and 88v). The book was donated to the Vatican Library by Pope Paul V (1552-1621) shortly after 1605. The present binding of brown leather over pasteboard with the arms of Pope Pius VI (1717-1799) and Cardinal Francesco Saverio Zelada (1717-1801) dates from between 1779 and 1798.