Image and the Office of the Dead in Late Medieval Europe: Regular, Repellant, and Redemptive Death (Visual and Material Culture, 1300-1700)

CiteImage and the Office of the Dead in Late Medieval Europe/cite explores the Office of the Dead as a site of interaction between text, image, and experience in the culture of commemoration that thrived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Office of the Dead was a familiar liturgical ritual, and its perceived importance and utility are evident in its regular inclusion in devotional compilations, which crossed the boundaries between lay and religious readers. The Office was present in all medieval deaths: as a focus for private contemplation, a site of public performance, a reassuring ritual, and a voice for the bereaved. Examining the images at the Office of the Dead and related written, visual, and material evidence, this book explores the relationship of these images to the text in which they are embedded and to the broader experiences of and aspirations for death. Cover 1 Table of Contents 8 Introduction 14 1. The Office of the Dead in Christian Liturgy 32 The Office of the Dead in Devotional Books 45 2. Regular Death: Reading the Funeral and Imaginative Practice 58 Seeing into the Office: Imagining 60 Reader as Body 79 Hearing Community: Image and Liturgy 84 3. Repellent Death: Time, Rot, and the Death of the Body 98 Death-Tide: Time and Decay of the Body 101 ‘Nothing more base and abominable’: The Corpse 108 Disruption: The Lively Corpse 131 Dry Bones: Death in Life 142 4. The Redemptive Death: Job, Lazarus, and Death Undone 158 Living Death: Job as the Social Body 159 The Undead: Lazarus and the Promise of Resurrection 179 Conclusions 206 Bibliography 212 Index of Manuscripts 232 General Index 234 List of Illustrations 10 Fig. 1-1. Royal MS 2 A XVIII ‘The Beauchamp Hours’, Hours, England (London), c. 1430, fol. 34. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 50 Fig. 2-1. Detail, Egerton MS 1151, Hours, England (Oxford), 1260–70, fol. 118. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 66 Fig. 2-2. Detail, Egerton MS 3277 ‘Bohun Psalter-Hours’, Psalter/Hours, England, c. 1361–73, fol. 142. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 75 Fig. 2-3. Detail, Additional MS 50001 ‘The Hours of Elizabeth the Queen’, Hours, England (London), c. 1425, fol. 55v. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 76 Fig. 2-4. MS 39, Hours, England, c. 1420–40, fol. 70. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Library, Heritage Collections. © The University of Edinburgh. CC-BY licence. 80 Fig. 2-5. MS Richardson 34, Hours, England, c. 1470, fol. 88v. Cambridge, MA: Houghton Library, Harvard University. 88 Fig. 3-1. MS BP.96, Hours, France (Paris), 1475–1500, fol. 133. New York: Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries. 103 Fig. 3-2. MS M.453, Hours, French, c. 1425–30, fol. 133v. New York: The Morgan Library and Museum. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913) in 1911. Photographic credit: The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. 106 Fig. 3-3. Sloane MS 2468, Hours, France (Paris), c. 1420, fol. 163. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 112 Fig. 3-4. Harley MS 2934, Hours, France (Troyes), c. 1410, fol. 106. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 115 Fig. 3-5. MS 507, Hours, France (Paris), c. 1500, fol. 113. Paris: Bibliothèque Mazarine. 121 Fig. 3-6. Yates Thompson MS 7, ‘The Hours of Dionora of Urbino’, Hours, Italy (Florence or Mantua), c. 1480, historiated initials added c. 1510–15, fol. 174. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 124 Fig. 3-7. Additional MS 25695, Hours, France, late 15th century, fol. 165. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 126 Fig. 3-8. MS Lewis E 92, Hours, France (Paris?), 1440–60, fol. 90v. Philadelphia: Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department. 128 Fig. 3-9. MS Lewis E 212, Hours, France, c. 1475–1500, fol. 151r. Philadelphia: Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department 133 Fig. 3-10. Yates Thompson MS 13 ‘The Taymouth Hours’, Hours, England, c. 1325–40, fols. 179v–180. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 135 Fig. 3-11. MS Lewis E 108, Hours, Flanders (Bruges), 1485–1500, fols. 109v–110, Belgium, Bruges, 1485–1500. Philadelphia: Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department. 143 Fig. 3-12. MS Typ 180, Hours (frag.), Italy (Venice), early 15th century, fol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Houghton Library, Harvard University. 146 Fig. 3-13. MS Q Med. 88, Hours, Flanders, late 15th century, fol. 110. Boston: Boston Public Library. 148 Fig. 4-1, 2. MS Auct D. 4.4. ‘The Bohun Psalter and Hours’, Psalter/Hours, England, c. 1370–80, fols. 244, 248v. Oxford: Bodleian Library. CC-BY-NC 4.0 licence. 165 Fig. 4-3a–c. Detail, Egerton MS 2019, Hours, France (Paris), c. 1440–50, fols. 167v, 175, 176. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 169 Fig. 4-4. MS Buchanan E. 3, Hours, France (Rouen), late 15th century, fol. 55. Oxford: Bodleian Library. CC-BY-NC 4.0 licence. 173 Fig. 4-5. Detail, MS KB 71 A 23, Bible, France (Paris), c. 1320–40, fol. 203v. The Hague: Nationale bibliotheek van Nederland. 177 Fig. 4-6. MS Auct D. 4.4. ‘The Bohun Psalter and Hours’, Psalter/Hours, England, c. 1370–80, fol. 243v. Oxford: Bodleian Library. CC-BY-NC 4.0 licence. 180 Fig. 4-7. Additional MS 35314, Hours, Netherlands, late 15th/early 16th century, fol. 53v. London: British Library. © The British Library Board. 185 Fig. 4-8. Detail, MS M. 179, Hours, France, 1480–1500, fol. 132v. New York: The Morgan Library and Museum. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913). Photographic credit: The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. 187 Fig. 4-9. MS M. 1003, Hours, France, c. 1465, fol. 153v. New York: The Morgan Library and Museum. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne, Jr., 1979. Photographic credit: The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. 192 Fig. 4-10. MS 21, ‘The Castle Hours’, Hours, France, late 15th century, fol. 69v. Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr Special Collections Library. 195 Fig. 4-11. MS M.1001, Hours, France, c. 1475, fol. 114. New York, The Morgan Library and Museum. Purchased on the Fellows Fund, 1979. Photographic credit: The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. 198