A Book of Hours Owned by the Duke de Berry?

The first proper examination of British Library, Yates Thompson MS. 37 was Sydney Cockerell's description for Henry Yates Thompson's catalogue, in which he wrote:

“Provenance. In a miniature on f. 92 a man in a rich red robe kneels before the Virgin and Child. He somewhat resembles the portraits of Jean Duke of Berry, and the fact that the Hours are of the use of Bourges makes it not unreasonable to conjecture that the book was intended for that great collector, though there is no signature or coat of arms to make it certain.”

BL, Yates Thompson MS. 37, fol.92r (detail)

Guiffrey's sigla for the Duke de Berry's inventories

Going straight to an entry in the edited inventories of the Duke de Berry without reading the introduction can lead to some confusion.

Guiffrey's base-text (in his vol. I) is the manuscript completed on 31 January 1413 (nos. 1-1099), with additions made until the Duke's death in 1416 (nos. 1100-1251).

Following the main text of each entry he often adds in smaller type the manuscript's marginal additions. He also often refers to the equivalent item as recorded in the other inventories (in his vol. II): that of 1401-03 (the MSS being recorded in 1402); a list of gifts given to the Ste-Chapelle, Bourges from 1404-07; and the posthumous inventory of 1416-c.1418. There is usually also a valuation, expressed in "liv.[res] t.[ournois]":

The Duke de Berry's 1413-1416 Inventories

The Duke de Berry's Inventories published by Guiffrey in the late 19th century are now available online.

It is a long time since I have looked at them, but looking again at the 1413-16 inventory (maybe I will look at the 1401-03 one in another post), a few things in particular strike me.

One is that in the descriptions of books of hours, the inventories explicitly provide the secundo folio of the Hours of the Virgin, even if it is not the first text in the volume, rather than what one might have expected: the secundo folio of the volume as a whole, or of the first text after the calendar.

A second is the terminology used in the description of script, here arranged roughly from most frequent to least frequent:

• "lettre de fourme" (nos. 853, 873, 889, 896, 912, 916, 918, 920, 921, 930, 934, 938, 940, 946-7, 950, 953, 956-7, 966, 969, 971, 976-8, 981-4, 993, 995-6, 998-9, 1000-1, 1003, 1243-4)
• "grosse lettre de fourme" (nos. 931, 1238, 1245, 1249)
• "bien grosse lettre de fourme" (no. 974)
• "menue lettre de fourme" (no. 973, 1241-2)
• "bonne lettre de fourme" (nos. 992, 1005-6, 1240, 1247-8)
• "bonne lettre de fourme paraille" (no. 972) 
• "très bonne lettre de fourme" (nos. 1246)
• "vieille lettre de fourme" (no. 929)
• "lettre de court" (nos. 859, 862, 870, 884-6, 888, 890-1, 895, 903, 911, 913, 915, 917, 919, 932-3, 936-7, 939, 942, 948-9, 951-2, 954-5, 959, 964, 967, 970, 985, 1004, 1239)
• "lettre courante" (no. 922-5, 928, 944, 979-80)
• "lettre boulonnoise" (nos. 855, 867, 945, 958, 965)
• "lettre roonde" (no. 926-7, 991)
• "grosse lettre" (no. 892) 
• "très gros lettre" (no. 874)
• "lettre gascoigne" (no. 892) 
• "lettre françoise" (no. 854)
• "escrips en espaignol" (no. 909) probably refers to the language, but indirectly provides an impression of the script

A third is that the inventory was often aware of the differing liturgical Uses of the MSS:

• "a l'usaige des  Prescheurs" (no. 850: The Petites Heures)
• "a l'usaige des Jacobins" (no. 963: The  Belleville Breviary)
• "a l'usaige de Paris" (nos. 971, 992, 998, 1001, 1240-1)

And a fourth is that the Très Riches Heures is not the only manuscript described as in quires (unbound):

• [903] "Item plusieurs quaiers de parchemin, non reliez, escrips de lettre de court, de L'Istoire de Troye"
• [904] "Item plusieurs quaiers de parchemin, non reliez, de la Vie et translacion de saint Gildas et du Saint calice de la cène"