{"id":6062,"date":"2016-03-15T03:58:41","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T03:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=6062"},"modified":"2017-09-17T16:19:33","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T16:19:33","slug":"a-leaf-from-the-office-of-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/a-leaf-from-the-office-of-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"A Leaf from the Office of the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Verso<\/a>A Part of the Office of the Dead<\/h2>\n

from a 15th-century Book of Hours
\nmade in Flanders
\n(perhaps at Bruges or Antwerp)
\ncirca 1470<\/p>\n

A single leaf, trimmed down in spoliation
\nto produce a decorated tidbit on its own
\nCirca 135 mm \u00d7 100 mm
\n< written area circa 66 \u00d7 50 mm >
\nSingle column of 17 lines<\/h4>\n

Budny Handlist 12<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Our series of posts by Mildred Budny on Manuscript Studies<\/a> continues with a somber view of a detached leaf from the Office of the Dead in a gracefully decorated Book of Hours from Flanders.\u00a0 With this post, given the subject of the manuscript text, we also reflect wistfully on the passing of some friends, colleagues, and others dear to us.\u00a0 The occasion prompts us to offer a personal recollection of Jennifer O’Reilly (1943\u20132016).
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Text and Layout<\/h3>\n

Manifestly the text on this detached leaf demonstrates that it forms part of the Office of the Dead<\/a>.\u00a0 On its own, it is not exactly clear for which part of that Office this part of the text was intended to serve, mainly because there are no indications upon the leaf, and because the assigned practices for liturgical observance could vary considerably from place to place, custom to custom, and time to time.<\/p>\n

Such is the nature of Books of Hours<\/a>, a widely popular and personal genre of manuscripts or printed books in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.\u00a0 At least we know which part of that set of texts, that is, the Office of the Dead, to which this leaf pertained in its original setting, although we cannot be certain of its specifically intended purpose, that is, which part of that particular Office.\u00a0 Discovery of other parts of the original book might reveal such features more precisely.\u00a0 Meanwhile, let us see what we can see.<\/p>\n

The text \u2014 as here<\/a> at Vespers\u00a0\u2014 extends from within the<\/p>\n