A CARMELITE BOOK OF HOURS

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 4, Issue 1, 1 May 1971, Page 21

A CARMELITE BOOK OF HOURS

Christopher de Hamel

The Carmelites were one of the four mendicant orders in late medieval France. These friars, wearing the distinctive white mantle, travelled round the country-side preaching, praying and living on the alms of the faithful. The Order claimed its origin from Mount Carmel in Palestine, upon which, the Carmelite annals stated, hermits had lived from the time of the Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha. From then until the fall of Acre in ad 1291 the ‘Carmelites’ lived a strict, contemplative eremitical life. Sometime in the twelfth century they began to leave their mountain and to travel to the West where they came into contact with the monastic rules of the cenobitic orders. Back in the East they obtained their own rule from Albert of Vercelli, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In 1226 this was confirmed by Pope Honorius 111 and more and more monks congregated in the West in the name of Carmel. They migrated first to Cyprus and thence to Sicily, France and England. In 1229 they appealed to Rome for a house in Southern Italy and were formally recognized by Gregory IX as a mendicant order. About this time the name of their order was changed to Fratres Ordinis Beatissimae Virginis Mariae de Monte Carmeli. The harsh eastern rule was relaxed and modified by the English Carmelite hermit, Simon Stock, General of the Order in 1247, and the Carmelites, like the more famous Franciscan friars, took on preaching and pastoral duties. The final relaxation of the more severe restrictions of their Rule was sanctioned by Pope Eugenius IV in February 1432. The Carmelites now became totally western, active in court and university circles, and their eastern origin became buried in their liturgy. 1

By 1450 women were admitted to the Order. In the sixteenth century the Rule was again revised and tightened by Saint Teresa and the modern Carmelites are now again among the more closed orders. There are two Carmelite houses in New Zealand, both of them for nuns, one being in Auckland and the other in Christchurch. The latter was the subject of an NZBC documentary in 1969. The Carmelites of the late middle ages travelled, like Chaucer’s friar, from place to place. They stopped to preach where they could and were known from their distinctive habits of white cloth as the ‘White Friars’. Because they were comparatively independent of each other, very few of their own records have survived. But while they left few possessions and made few major contributions to theological scholarship, they were familiar to every medieval village.

In 1958 several original medieval manuscripts were presented to the Turnbull Library by Sir John Ilott. One of these, a little Book of Hours, has proved to have been specially made for a Carmelite friar. It is a small, easily handled, neatly illuminated prayer-book owned suc-

cessively by at least two Carmelite friars in the very early sixteenth century. Presumably it was carried round from village to village as one of the very personal possessions of a wandering medieval monk. Its style is north-eastern French and it was apparently made for a Friar d’Argent and given before 1511 to a Friar Johannes of Malzeville, a district near Nancy.

The manuscript itself is a small Book of Hours. Books of Hours contain the regular round of prayers and psalms to be recited daily in private and are generally intended clearly for lay use. On rare occasions, however, Books of Hours were written out for the religious orders and printed editions have been traced for all the orders except the Trinitarians. 2 There are only three printed editions of the Carmelite Hours known to exist (C 1487, and two in 1516) 3 but the British Museum has no record of any other manuscript version of the use. 4 Of 618 manuscripts recorded in the fourteenth century Carmelite Library in Florence there is not a single Book of Hours. 5 Of the thirty other known Books of Hours in Australasia, this is the only one which can be definitely ascribed to any religious order. 6 A Book of Hours made for a Carmelite friar thus becomes a particularly interesting manuscript. A Carmelite friar owned very few books. Soon after joining the Order he was given a book allowance which, at the end of his noviciate, he was to spend on his basic text, a Breviary. This book contained a fuller version of the Book of Hours. 7 If there was any money left over from the purchase of his Breviary it might be spent on other books. 8 A mendicant friar would not have been able to possess many books. The books that he did own were his for life and could not be sold, given away or pledged, and they were recoverable on his death by the convent where he said his first Mass. From here they could be redistributed again but only to those friars who would respect the gift and keep it within their Order. 9 Friends and relatives of an individual friar could give him money to buy books and there exists at York Minster a Carmelite manuscript which was written for a friar around 1381 with money ex elemosinis amicorum suorum. 10 A book given or bequeathed to a friar could not be received for his own use unless he wrote for permission to his prior, and, on his death, the book was recoverable again by the Order, even if the friar died while he was outside his own province.

Preserved in Australia there are five fifteenth century fragments or editions of works by a Carmelite author, Baptista Mantuanus, which were printed in 1488-9. 11 In a private collection in Victoria there is a manuscript Book of Hours, of the Use of Paris, which was owned in the seventeenth century by a Carmelite house. The text itself is not Carmelite. 12 It would appear that there are no other medieval Carmelite books in Australasia.

The Carmelite Book of Hours in the Turnbull collection is written in Latin and dates from between circa 1498 and 1511. It is written on 103 leaves of vellum, 158 x 107 mm. The collation consists of: (8) 1-2 (9) 3 (8) 4-8 (6) 9 (8) 10-13 . Leaf 18 is an original insertion into the third gathering; there is a bifoliate missing from the centre of the ninth gathering. The second, fifth and ninth gatherings open with illuminated borders, but sideways catchwords are visible at the end of the fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth gatherings. Pin-holes for ruling the guide-lines are visible in the second, ninth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth gatherings. The text of the manuscript is composed of nineteen lines of black ink, with pale red ruling. The script is a French litter a hybrida of circa 1500. The style would suggest an AlsaceLorraine origin. This Book of Hours contains:

1. Calendar (ir-i2v) followed by two pages blank. 2. Prayers - for before Mass (i4r, 14. V and isr), to the Virgin (isr) and for after receipt of Communion (isv-i6r). 3. Sequuntur quindecim psalmi - The Fifteen Psalms of Degree (i7r). 4. The Gospel Sequences - both from Saint John (24r and 24V), followed by a prayer. 5. Hours of the Holy Cross (26r). 6. Sequuntur septem psalmi penitentiales (rubric 27V) in error for: Hours of the Holy Spirit (29r). 7. Penitential Psalms (3 or) followed by the Litany of the Saints (36V). 8. Psalmi capitulares, followed by prayers (4ir). 9. Hours of the Virgin (Use of Carmel) (42r). Matins (42r), Lauds (52v), Prime (58V), Terce (6iv), Sext (63r), None (64V), Vespers (66v), Compline [first leaf missing] (69r). 10. Office of the Dead (72c). Vespers (72r); Matins - Ist nocturn (75r), 2nd nocturn (78V), 3rd nocturn (83r); Lauds (88r). 11. Psalmi capitulares (921) followed by prayers. 12. Prayers to God the Father (93r), to God the Son (93r), to the Holy Ghost (93 V), to the Virgin (94r and 9 6v), the Flos Carmeli (98r), and five prayers to Christ (99r). 13. Memorials to the Good Angel (ioov), to John the Baptist (ioov), to Elisha (ioir), to John the Evangelist (ioiv), and to Peter and Paul (ioiv). The text of the manuscript ends on leaf ioiv; there are two original blank leaves indicating that there were no further Memorials. Leaves 25V and 98V are also ruled and left blank.

At the beginning of most Books of Hours is a Calendar for the whole year listing in order the particular saints to be venerated on each day. This can be of great help in determining the origin of a manuscript as

different localities and religious interests venerated different groups of saints. The Calendar of this manuscript is unmistakeably Carmelite. Among the major feasts of the Carmelite year 13 were the eight feasts of the Virgin. In the Calendar of this Book of Hours these dates have been singled out in red ink and called ‘full’ or ‘double’ feasts. They are: 1. March 25 Annunciatio dominica - totum duplex - The Annunciation; of great significance to the Carmelites many of whose churches were dedicated to the Annunciation. 2. July 2 Visitatio beati marie - totum - The Visitation. Introduced into the Carmelite calendar by the General Chapter of 1391 and raised to the rank of totum duplex, as here, in 1420. 3. July 16 Commemoratio sollemnis sancte marie patrone ordinis nostri - duplex - The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; known under several names and instituted by the Carmelites between 1376 and 1386. It did not become a feast of the Universal Church until 1726. 4. August 5 Festum nivie - duplex - Our Lady of the Snows; introduced by the Carmelites at the same time as the Visitation. 5. August 15 Assumptio virginis gloriose - totum duplex - The Assumption, the feast par excellence of the Carmelite Order till at least the end of the fifteenth century.

6. September 8 Nativitatis gloriose virginis marie - totum - The Birth of the Virgin. 7. November 21 Presentatio virginis gloriose - duplex - The Presentation; introduced with the Visitation. 8. December 8 Conceptio immaculate virginis marie - totum - The Conception of Mary was directed to be observed as a solemn feast by the Carmelite chapter at Toulouse in 1306, and was made even more solemn in 1396. The Carmelites, like the Franciscans, defended the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the endless medieval controversies.

Other particularly important Carmelite feasts, singled out for special veneration are: February 2 Purificatio sacrae virginis marie - totum duplex - The Carmelite friars celebrated the feast of the Purification with a procession with candles. July 26 Anne matris virginis marie - duplex - In 1375 the Carmelite General Chapter decreed the commemoration of Saint Anne to be next to that of her daughter, the Virgin Mary. March 19 Joseph confessoris nutricis domini - duplex - It was claimed by Pope Benedict XIV that the Carmelites first introduced the worship of Joseph into the West. Although there is no evidence for this, the feast was very important in the Order. May 25 Marie, Jacobi et salo e - duplex - The Three Marys (i.e., Mary

Magdalene; Mary, mother ‘of James’, and Mary, the wife of Cleophas [John 19:25].) The feast was given a double rite in the Carmelite General Chapter of 1342. June 14 Helizei prophete principis carmeli - duplex - The Old Testament prophet, Elisha. The Carmelite martyrology of 1480 calls Elisha ‘after Elijah, father and leader of our holy Order.’ He is here called ‘Leader of Carmel’. October 6 Patriarcharum abraham, ysaac et iacob - The anniversary of the discovery of the tombs of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all of whom were associated with Mount Carmel. October 21 Hylarionis conditor ordinis nostri - Saint Hilarion, a fourth century hermit in Palestine. The Calendar also contains the names of various saints, not written in red, but which were of veneration to the Carmelite Order and would not appear in the usual Roman Calendar at all. These are: February 18: Saint Simeon, second bishop of Jerusalem. September 25: Saint Cleophas. December 17: Saint Lazarus. Also included are a number of saints who were themselves members of the Carmelite Order. These are:

March 6 Cirilli presbytri et doctoris ordinis nostri - duplex - Saint Cyril of Constantinople, Prior General in Palestine who died in 1235. His feast is no longer important in the modern Carmelite Calendar. May 5 Angeli martyris ordinis nostri - Saint Angelo, a Carmelite martyr who died in 1220. This feast was approved by Pope Pius II about 1459. May 16 Sancti Symonis Stock ordinis nostri - duplex - Saint Simon Stock, the English Prior General of the Carmelite Order who died at Bordeaux in 1265. In 1951 the Carmelites returned his relics from Bordeaux to Aylesford in Kent where the first General Chapter of the Order was held in 1247. January 7 Petri Thome ordinis nostri - Saint Peter Thomas, a fourteenth century Carmelite scholar. 15 August 7 Sancti Alberti confessor - duplex - Saint Albert was Prior of Trapani and Provincial of Sicily. His feast was prescribed for the Carmelites in 1411 but he has, even now, never been formally canonized by the Roman Church.

The manuscript includes two Carmelite feasts which would appear to help date the book. July 15 Divisio apostolorum - duplex - The inclusion of the feast of the Division of the Apostles in the Carmelite calendar is the result of an interesting accident. It first appears in the original printed edition of the Carmelite Breviary produced in Brussels in 1480. The supervision of this printed text was performed by Valentine of Cologne who included the Division of the Apostles as a local feast of his home town, Cologne.

The printers of subsequent breviaries, recognizing that the feast did not belong to the Universal Church of Rome, assumed it to be a specifically Carmelite one. It was copied in the printed Carmelite breviaries of 1490, 1495, 1504, etc. The feast was never officially authorized by the Carmelite Order. Its inclusion in this manuscript dates the book as after 1480 and shows that somewhere in the transmission of the text a manuscript has been transcribed from a printed book.

September 16 Joachimi patris virginis marie - duplex - The feast of Joachim did not become ‘duplex’ until 1498 when it was chosen by the General Chapter of the Carmelites at Nunes. Its inclusion here, in the handwriting of the original scribe, would not necessarily prove that the Book of Hours post-dates 1498 but it does strongly suggest it. The other limit for the manuscript is the ownership inscription dated 1511 (i6v).

The main text of a Book of Hours is the Office, or ‘Hours’, of the Virgin. While the arrangement of psalms and prayers within this office is basically the same in all manuscripts there exist certain variations within the different manuscript texts of the Office. When generations of scribes copied books in a particular district there tended to grow up distinctive variations peculiar to the diocese or interest behind that Book of Hours. This was known as the ‘use’ of a Book of Hours. A careful study of these ‘uses’ was prepared by F. Madan and published in the Bodleian Quarterly Record in 1920. 16 In this he identifies four characteristics distinctive of a Book of Hours of Carmelite Use all of which features are to be found in the present manuscript. The Hour of Prime contains the antiphon Assumpta est and the capitulum Ah initio (6ov and 6ir) while the Hour of None contains the antiphon Pulchra es and the antiphon Sicut cinnamomum (66r). Following the Office of the Dead in this Book of Hours are various series of prayers. Amongst these is to be found the famous Carmelite hymn, the Flos Carmeli, (leaf 98r). It is preceded by two lines blank and followed by a page and a half left blank. In this manuscript the hvrrm reads:

Flos Carmeli vitis fiorigera Splendor celi virgo puerpera Singular is. Mater mitis sed viri nescia Carmelitis da privilegia Stella maris. And beneath it: Ora pro nobis virgo pia. Dum fluet unda maris curretque per ethera Phebus, vivet Carmeli candidus ordo monti.

(Flower of Carmel, flowering vine, Light of heaven, a virgin bringing forth a child, Unparalleled. Fruitful mother but without knowledge of a man - Grant the privileges of Carmel, Star of the sea.

Pray for us, holy Virgin. As long as the waves of the sea flow And Phoebus drives across the skies, May the bright Order of Mount Carmel live.)

This hymn occurs in numerous Carmelite manuscripts from the late fourteenth century. 17 It was recited by the friars on the feast of Simon Stock (16 May) and a very old tradition ascribes it to him. It is an interesting example of the strong, almost pagan, devotion of the Carmelites to the Virgin Mary in the middle ages. The original oratory on Mount Carmel was dedicated to the Virgin, vows were made to her, and in the Carmelite Constitutions of 1294 the Order was declared to be identified with her name. 18 According to one Carmelite tradition the Virgin, while still alive, was reputed to have personally joined the Order on Mount Carmel. 19

Also of interest in ascribing this Book of Hours to a Carmelite origin is the inclusion, among the five Memorials, of Elisha, the Old Testament prophet (ioir). Each Memorial, following the usual practice in Books of Hours, contains an anthem and a prayer. The prayer to Elisha runs Deus qui beatum helizeum prophetam montis Carmeli incolam altis mirijicasti prodigiis et illustrasti doctrinis, tribue nobis quesumus ut eius exempla sequentes ad te pervenire mereamur. (God, who exalted by portents the blessed prophet Elisha, dweller of the heights of Mount Carmel, and who made him famous by scriptures, grant us, we pray, that, following his example, we may deserve to come unto you.)

It is unusual for an Old Testament figure to appear in a series of invocations to the saints. The Carmelites, however, traced their descent from Elisha and Elijah whom they saw as the first of the holy men to dedicate their lives to God on Mount Carmel. In the Calendar of this manuscript Elisha is given a double rite and is styled princeps carmeli. The feast of Elijah (20 July) does not occur in this manuscript and was not introduced into the Carmelite Calendar until the second half of the sixteenth century. This Book of Hours is also attractively decorated and illuminated. The capital letters are in burnished gold decorated with flowing black

penwork, or in blue paint decorated with red penwork. Each Office within the book opens with a brightly coloured border. These are: Leaf 17V: Three-sided border of trefoils and stylized flowers with, at foot, a miniature of a Carmelite friar kneeling before a shield. Leaf 26v: Full illuminated border showing the instruments of the Passion: the cross, spear, nails, hammer, pliers, whip, post, cock, etc. Leaf 28v : Three-sided border of trefoils and formal flowers over patterned background of pink, gold and brown dotted with gold. Leaf 30V: Full-page decoration. Central miniature of David kneeling in prayer before a medieval walled castle and city; his harp lies before him and an angel of vengeance flies over the city. Within the full border is a smaller miniature of David killing Goliath. Leaf 42V : Full-page decoration. Central miniature of the Annunciation with, in the background, the Devil in a tree handing an apple to Eve. Grisaille border of trefoils on matt gold with strawberry, peacock, bird and housefly in full colour. Leaves 58r ff: Three-sided illuminated borders to each of the canonical hours from Prime onwards.

Leaf 72V: Full-page decoration. Central miniature of the Raising of Lazarus. Border of trefoils and a bird on matt gold. The borders are of high standard, but the painted figures are rather expressionless and are sometimes slightly rubbed. The manuscript is neatly bound in early nineteenth century stamped mottled calf. The spine is labelled simply ‘uffizio’, the Italian for ‘Office’. The whole book is now preserved in a green box. r In the study of medieval manuscripts the ‘provenance’ is often of great importance. It appears likely that the original owner of this manuscript was the Carmelite friar whose ‘portrait’ appears on leaf I7r at the beginning of the Psalms of Degree. Here a friar, holding a banderole reading O mater dei, memento mei, 20 kneels before a shield showing the Risen Christ. He wears the traditional dark brown habit of the Carmelites, covered with the white cloak bestowed upon Simon Stock by the Virgin Mary and introduced into the Carmelite Order by the command of Pope Innocent IV. Beneath is what appears to be his name: ‘f. + .p. d’ argent’. While most Books of Hours of the late fifteenth century were produced in commercial workshops, there was still a trade in commissioned manuscripts. When a Book of Hours was specially written out for a particular subscriber, the patron’s name and portrait were often inserted to add a personal touch to the finished manuscript. In this manuscript the tiny letters inserted by the scribe at the beginning of each sentence as a guide to the illuminator would seem to show that this book was not produced solely by one person. It is therefore unlikely that Friar d’Argent wrote it himself for his own use. There would appear to be two alternatives. Either the friar, despite his

vow of poverty, paid to have the book written out, or, secondly, it may have been commissioned by a relative or friend of the friar, perhaps on some occasion such as the taking of the friar’s final vows. It would then have been presented to him. Probably it was virtually the only book he possessed and, though it is in reasonably good condition, it shows evident signs of having been used.

u u It has been described how, on a Carmelite’s death, his books were returned to the chapter where he celebrated his first Mass. The books would then be redistributed among other friars who needed them. On leaf i6v, opposite the d’Argent picture, is an added inscription: l[aus] x[pist]e scripsit fr[ater] Jo[hannes] de Malzevilla. 1511. (To the praise of Christ, Friar John of Malzeville wrote this - 1511.) Malzeville is a district in north-eastern France near the town of Nancy and it appears that a friar from here was the man to whom the manuscript was passed on. After the early sixteenth century the history of this book becomes vague. On the final blank vellum leaf are a number of scribbles in different hands dating from the seventeenth century and mentioning various names. These include Ferdinando Carli, Carlo Carli, and Sig. Andreo Lucresti. On the recto of the leaf is a neater note: Dominus Ferdinandus Carli Petrasanctensis.

Though the binding of this book is also Italian, it was apparently back into northern Europe, into England, by the nineteenth century. On leaf ioiv is an autograph which appears to read ‘J. Durrie’. Pasted in the front is a catalogue-cutting with the price 16 guineas added in pencil and a note that a similar book sold for -£95. There is an auction sticker reading ‘Lot 4’. Eventually it passed into the collection of Sir John Ilott, possibly in the early 19205, who presented it to the Turnbull Library in 1958. The book was described very briefly in the Turnbull Library Record in i 960 as one of the manuscripts from the Ilott Collection. In 1967 it was sent to the Fisher Library in Sydney for the Australasian exhibition of medieval manuscripts becoming item 59 in the Catalogue the Exhibition. This makes no mention of its Carmelite origin. A photograph of leaf 28r (the opening of the Penitential Psalms) was reproduced as Plate XIV in the catalogue. The Book of Hours was again on exhibition from July 1970 as item 1 in ‘Manuscripts and Books’ in the Turnbull Library’s Jubilee Exhibition.

This book has been seen and handled by very many people since it was prepared and written out in late medieval France. From being buffeted in the travelling bag of a wandering friar, it has passed from collection to collection through the centuries. From being a personal private book of devotions it has now become, in the twentieth century and in New Zealand, an example of medieval art and a historical docu-

ment of a religious order of the late middle ages.

NOTES *For the history of the Carmelite Order, see: New Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol 111, 1967, under ‘Carmelites - History’; Knowles, David: The Religious Orders in Britain, Vol I, (CUP) 1950; Nigg, Walter: Warriors of God: The Great Religious Orders and their Founders, (translated, Mary Ilford; London, 1959). 2 Lacombe, Paul: Livres d’Heures Imprimes au XV e et au XVP Siecle . . . Catalogue. (Paris, 1907; reprint, 1963) p xxxi. 3 Bohatta, Hanns: Bibiographie der Livres d‘Heures . . . des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts, (Vienna, 1924) p 58. All told, 1,582 editions of the Book of Hours are described. 4 I am grateful to Miss J. M. Backhouse, Assistant Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum, for confirmation of a number of points concerning this Book of Hours.

5 Humphreys, K. W.: The Library of the Carmelites of Florence at the End of the Fourteenth Century, (Amsterdam, 1964). Inventory of the library, pp 30-89. 6 See: Sinclair, K. V.: Descriptive Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Western Manuscripts in Australia, (Sydney UP) 1969. The only possible exception is MS 159 (pp 253-256) which may prove to be Augustinian. 7 The Turnbull Library owns, for example, a Breviary which apparently belonged to a fourteenth century Franciscan nun of the Order of the Poor Clares in Germany. B Humphreys, K. W.: The Book Provisions of the Mediaeval Friars 1215-1400, (Amsterdam, 1964) pp 79 and 81. cf also The Library of the Carmelites (op cit) p 8. 9 Cf the warning of the Carmelite General Chapter in Milan, 1345, against giving books to unsuitable friars. Book Provisions (op cit) p 78. 10 Book Provisions (op cit) pp 78-9. 11 Kelly, Celsus: Franciscan Scholarship in the Middle Ages . . . Catholic Review Vol V, No 3, June, 1949, p 147. 12 Sinclair: Descriptive Catalogue (op cit) p 388.

13 For most of the information here on the Carmelite liturgy, see: King, A. A.: Liturgies of the Religious Orders (Milwaukee, 1955) pp 235-324. 14 All contractions have been expanded in transcription. 15 The date, 7 January, is interesting; King gives the date as 16 January while the Carmelite Calendar of 1609 gives it as the 29th. (See: King: Liturgies, p 283). An interesting account of the life of Peter Thomas is to be found in Humphreys’ Book Provisions (op cit) pp 77-8. 16 Madan, F.: Hours of the Virgin: Tests for Localization - Bodleian Quarterly Record, Vol 111 (1920-1922), pp 40-44. 17 King: Liturgies (op cit) pp 274-5. 18 New Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol 111 (op cit). 19 Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th ed, 1937), Vol IV, p 887. 20 ‘Oh Mother of God, remember me.’ An identical banderole occurs in the ownership miniature of the Hours of Catherine of Cleves. See Plummer, John: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves (London, 1966) Plate 1. 21 Turnbull Library Record, Vol XIV, March i 960, p 5.