The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 6, 2023

Leaf from a Book of Hours: St. Barbara (2 of 2 Excised Leaves)

c. 1465

This object has related works. See Leaf from a Book of Hours: Calendar Page for May (recto) and Calendar Page for June (verso) (2 of 3 Excised Leaves)

Master of Jacques de Luxembourg

(French)

France, Eastern France or Paris (?), 15th century

Ink, tempera and gold on vellum

Leaf: 23.7 x 18.6 cm (9 5/16 x 7 5/16 in.)

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2011.63

Location

115 Manuscripts & Textiles

Fun Fact

The owner of a book of hours was intended to stop eight times a day and read the appropriate devotional text.

Description

Saint Barbara was popular in France, known for being imprisoned in a tower by her father and living as a hermit. In piety, she asked builders to construct her three windows to symbolize the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Her father, enraged by her conversion to Christianity, killed her, after which he was struck by lightning from heaven. She was seen as a protector from sudden death, a common medieval concern, and the patron saint of architects and builders. The text on this leaf is in French, as opposed to Latin.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Memore de madame ste barbe

Inscription Translation

Memorial to my lady St. Barbara

Inscription Remark

Recto

Inscription

Oratio: Omnipotens sempiterne Deus qui… corpus beatae Barbare

Inscription Translation

Prayer: Grant, we beseech, omnipotent one

Inscription Remark

Verso

Provenance
-1894
Damascène Morgand, Paris, France, sold to Thomas Yates Thompson
1894-1904
Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), London, England
May 3, 1904
(Sale: Sotheby's, London, May 3, 1904, no. 31)
[Bruce Ferrini, Akron, Ohio], sold to Jeanne Miles Blackburn
-2011
Jeanne Miles Blackburn, Maitland, Fl, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
2011-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Citations
Thompson, Henry Yates, and M. R. James. A Descriptive Catalogue of Fifty Manuscripts from the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson. Cambridge [England]: University Press, 1898. no.15
Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge. Catalogue of Valuable Books and Illuminated and Other Manuscripts: Which Will Be Sold by Auction ... on Tuesday, the 3rd Day of May, 1904. London: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1904. no. 31
Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 53, cat. no. 51 archive.org
Exhibition history

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 1999-February 27, 2000).

The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours (Gallery 115 rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.63