Black book of hours
The Black Book of Hours is a book of hours that derives its name from the color of its book pages. It is one of the few surviving books of hours that was created in an elaborate and unusual way with blackened pages. It is considered one of the main works of Gothic book illumination and was created around 1475 in Bruges in the vicinity of the illuminator Willem Vrelant . It was probably drawn up for a member of the Court of Burgundy and is now in the Morgan Library in New York, call number : M. 493.
The text and the coloring of the black book of hours
The Morgan Library's Black Book of Hours is one of only seven surviving manuscripts with blackened pages, all from Flemish workshops and from the second half of the 15th century. In a complex process, the parchment was colored black either with soot or, as in the Black Book of Hours, with an iron-copper solution.
It measures 17 × 12 cm and comprises 121 sheets of text and 14 full-page miniatures, 15 larger and several small initials and 138 borders . The text was written with gold and silver ink and the initials were placed on an emerald green background. As colors for the illuminations were gold , white lead and opaque colors used. The gold-colored borders are primed blue.
The client of the Black Book of Hours
The person who commissioned the Black Book of Hours of the Morgan Library is unknown; it can only be assigned to the area around the Burgundian court of Charles the Bold .
The painter of the Black Book of Hours
The illuminator , not known by name , who created the Black Book of Hours of the Morgan Library, is known as the master of the Black Book of Hours . He came from the circle around Willem Vrelant ; comparative manuscripts illuminated by him have not yet been identified.
Other black books of hours
The Black Book of Hours now in the Morgan Library was intended for high-ranking, bibliophile clients who were to be found primarily at the court of Burgundy . There are six other examples of black books of hours, also elaborately made with black pages, a special category of books of hours that were in vogue at the court of Burgundy during the last years of the duchy up to 1477, for example
- Black Book of Hours by Charles the Bold (Austrian National Library, Vienna, Cod. 1856)
- Book of hours of Mary of Burgundy (Austrian National Library, Vienna, Cod. 1857)
Preservation
The particularly thick parchment of the Black Book of Hours in the Morgan Library was chemically unaffected by the black color of the iron-copper solution. Therefore it is the best preserved copy of a black manuscript and is still bound. Most of the other black books of hours had to be tied apart over time and now preserved between acrylic sheets.
Facsimile edition
- Black book of hours. Facsimile edition from Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, M. 493 by the Facsimile Verlag Luzern , Luzern 2001
literature
- Bernard Bousmanne et al. a. (Ed.): Black Book of Hours. Scientific commentary on the facsimile edition from Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, M. 493 . Lucerne 2001
- Ingo F. Walther, Norbert Wolf: Codices illustres. The most beautiful illuminated manuscripts in the world. 400 to 1600. = masterpieces of illumination. Taschen, Cologne et al. 2005, ISBN 3-8228-4747-X , pp. 372–373.
- Yearbook of the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. 2005/2006. Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf 2006, ISBN 3-9808514-4-3 , p. 650.
