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The Apocalypse Cycle in the Bedford Hours

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Richard K. Emmerson
Richard K. Emmerson*
Affiliation:
Western Washington University
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Extract

The Bedford Hours (British Library MS Additional 18850) has been called one of “the very finest examples of French art of the earlier half of the fifteenth century….” Its lavish use of gold and bright colors, its beautifully conceived calendar pages and large miniatures, its connection with the marriage of John of Lancaster, the duke of Bedford, to Anne of Burgundy, and its fascinating history as a manuscript have received much attention. Scholars, however, have virtually ignored the almost 1,250 marginal illustrations that decorate the manuscript's 289 folios. These tiny pictures are generally woven into the ivy-leaf border, painted within roundels of approximately one inch in diameter. Thematically related, they are usually placed two to a folio side, one within the left or right border, and one within the lower border. The roundels, furthermore, are accompanied by one-line Old French texts. These are always placed together below the lower border and are arranged so that the first text, written in blue, identifies the roundel within the side border, whereas the second text, written in gold, explains the roundel painted within the lower border.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 50 , 1995 , pp. 173 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by Fordham University 

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References

1 George F. Warner, Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Museum, ser. I–IV (London, 1903).Google Scholar

2 See especially Munby, A. N. L., Connoisseurs and Medieval Miniatures, 1750–1850 (Oxford, 1972), 1–13; Janet Backhouse, “A Reappraisal of the Bedford Hours,” British Library Journal 7 (Spring 1981): 47–69; and Janet Backhouse, The Bedford Hours (London, 1990).Google Scholar

3 For an example of the typical mise-en-page for text and roundels within the framing border, see Backhouse, , Bedford Hours, fig. 7.Google Scholar

4 Gough, R., An Account of a Rich Illuminated Missal Executed for John Duke of Bedford (London, 1794). The paraphrases and quotations should be used with caution, as Gough sometimes mistranscribes or mistranslates the Old French texts. Usually these mistakes result in minor errors of detail or nonsense; for example, Gough translates the text interpreting Apoc. 7:8 as identifying the salvation of “priests who give alms,” whereas the French clearly identifies them as “riches gens” (fol. 189r); Gough also transcribes the scroll in the lower roundel on fol. 231v as “faitez hommage a lenturest,” but what Antichrist actually says is “faites hommage a lentrecrist.” Occasionally, however, Gough's errors are serious, as when he confuses the text explaining the interpretive roundel for Apoc. 8:12 (fol. 194r). Although the text discusses Boethius's opposition to Sabellius, Gough understands it as representing the “Heresy of Anticesabe and Boesce” (61).Google Scholar

5 Backhouse, “Reappraisal,” 52. Although adding no further explanation or evidence to support her earlier suggestion, Backhouse repeats it in her longer illustrated book published by the British Library: “The vast scope of this programme is so daunting that it has yet to be studied in full detail. It may most simply be categorized as an elaborated version of the popular Speculum Humanae Salvationis“ (Backhouse, Bedford Hours, 24). For a brief outline of the marginal roundels in relation to the large miniatures, see ibid., 63.Google Scholar

6 For the use of typology in medieval literature and illustrated books, see Emmerson, Richard K., “Figura and the Medieval Typological Imagination,” in Typology and English Medieval Literature, ed. Keenan, Hugh (New York, 1992), 7–42.Google Scholar

7 The Last Judgment scene, furthermore, is usually based on Matt. 25:31–46, rather than on the Apocalypse. Doomsday may be accompanied in these programs by the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matt. 25:1–13) and by representations of the damned in hell and the blessed in heaven. For the Speculum humanae salvationis and Biblia pauperum, see Henry, Avril, ed., Biblia pauperum: A Facsimile (Aldershot, 1987); Henry, Avril, ed., The Mirour of Mans Salvacioun: A Middle English Translation of Speculum humanae salvationis (Philadelphia, 1987); and Adrian Wilson and Joyce Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror: Speculum humanae salvationis, 1324–1500 (Berkeley, 1985).Google Scholar

8 For representations of the Apocalypse in medieval art, see Klein, Peter K., “The Apocalypse in Medieval Art,” in Emmerson, Richard K. and McGinn, Bernard, eds., The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, N.Y., 1992), 159–99; and M. R. James, The Apocalypse in Art (London, 1931). Specifically for manuscript cycles see Kenneth Emmerson, Richard and Lewis, Suzanne, “Census and Bibliography of Medieval Manuscripts Containing Apocalypse Illustrations, ca. 800–1500,” 3 pts: pt 1, Traditio 40 (1984): 337–79; pt. 2, Traditio 41 (1985): 367–409; and pt. 3, Traditio 42 (1986): 443–72, cited henceforth as “Census.” The cycle in the Bedford Hours is described in pt. 3, 469, no. 169.Google Scholar

9 The Bible is cited from Bibliorum sacrorum iuxta vulgatam Clementinam (Vatican City, 1959).Google Scholar

10 Madrid, BN Vitr. 24–3. See Dominguez Rodriguez, Ana, Libros de Horas del Siglo XV en la Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid, 1979), no. 13, 82–105, esp. 102–03. The “images de difícil identificacion” noted by Dominguez Rodriguez are an Antichrist cycle. For this manuscript see “Census,” pt. 3, 469–70, no. 170.Google Scholar

11 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum MS 62. For a description of the Hours of Isabel, see James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, 1895), 156–74, esp. 160–64 on the Apocalypse. See also “Census,” pt. 3, 468, no. 168.Google Scholar

12 James, , Apocalypse in Art, 16–17, 65–66.Google Scholar

13 On the medieval Antichrist tradition, see Kenneth Emmerson, Richard, Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Apocalypticism, Art, and Literature (Seattle, 1981); for Antichrist in medieval art, see 108–44; and McGinn, Bernard, “Portraying Antichrist in the Middle Ages,” in The Use and Abuse of Eschatology in the Middle Ages, ed. Verbeke, Werner, Verhelst, Daniel, and Welkenhuysen, Andries, Mediaevalia Lovaniensia 1.15 (Leuven, 1988), 1–48. A handy facsimile of a block-book vita Antichristi is Der Antichrist und Die Fünfzehn Zeichen vor dem Jüngsten Gericht, ed. Boveland G, Karin, and Steffen, Ruth, 2 vols. (Hamburg, 1979).Google Scholar

14 For the Gulbenkian Apocalypse, see Lewis, Suzanne, “Tractatus adversus Judaeos in the Gulbenkian Apocalypse,” Art Bulletin 68 (1986): 543–66; and “Census,” pt. 2, 383, no. 62. For the Bible moralisée, see de Laborde, Alexandre, La Bible moralisée illustrée, 5 vols. (Paris, 1911–28); and “Census,” pt. 3, 460–64, nos. 153–58.Google Scholar

15 For various “schools” and textual traditions in the development of Apocalypse exegesis, see Kamlah, Wilhelm, Apokalypse und Geschichtstheologie: Die mittelalterliche Auslegung der Apokalypse vor Joachim von Fiore, Historische Studien 285 (Berlin, 1935). More accessible is Bernard McGinn, The Calabrian Abbot: Joachim of Fiore in the History of Western Thought (New York, 1985), 74–97; and the essays in part one of Emmerson, and McGinn, , eds., Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (n. 8 above).Google Scholar

16 Augustine, , City of God 11.19, ed. Knowles, David and trans. Bettenson, Henry (Baltimore, 1972), 450.Google Scholar

17 For the richness of the Apocalypse, see Farrer, Austin, A Rebirth of Images: The Making of St. John's Apocalypse (London, 1949); for its imagery in the Middle Ages, Richard K. Emmerson, “The Apocalypse in Medieval Culture,” in Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, 293–332.Google Scholar

18 For the Beatus Apocalypses, the five-volume forthcoming catalogue edited by John Williams, The Illustrated Beatus: A Corpus of Illustrations of the Commentary on the Apocalypse (London, 1995–96), will replace the standard work by Wilhelm Neuss, Die Apokalypse des hl. Johannes in der altspanischen und altchristlichen Bibel-Illustration, 2 vols. (Münster, 1931). See also Williams, John, “Purpose and Imagery in the Apocalypse Commentary of Beatus of Liébana,” in Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, 217–33; and “Census,” pt. 1, 347–79, nos. 8–32.Google Scholar

19 See Ann Matter, E., “The Apocalypse in Early Medieval Exegesis,” in Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, 38–50.Google Scholar

20 A helpful introductory discussion of the rules of Tyconius is available in Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana III.30–37, trans. D. W. Robertson, Jr., On Christian Doctrine (Indianapolis, 1958), 104–17. See also Bright, Pamela, The Book of Rules of Tyconius: Its Purpose and Inner Logic (Notre Dame, Ind., 1988); and Paula Fredriksen, “Tyconius and Augustine on the Apocalypse,” in Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, 20–37.Google Scholar

21 Regarding the unclean spirits of Babylon, the French text explains, “Ce signifie que lez deables habitent auec lez pecheurs orgueilleux enuiens gloutons peresseurs et auarices” (fol. 241r). The interpretation of Gog and Magog also cites “peche mortel” (fol. 250r).Google Scholar

22 For the Anglo-French Apocalypses, see Delisle, Léopold and Meyer, Paul, L'Apocalypse en français au XIIIe siècle: Bibl. nat. Ms. fr. 403, 2 vols. (Paris, 1900–01); Peter K. Klein, Endzeiterwartung und Ritterideologie: Die englischen Bilderapokalypsen der Frühgotik und MS Douce 180 (Graz, 1983); and Suzanne Lewis, “Exegesis and Illustration in Thirteenth-Century English Apocalypses,” in Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, 259–75.Google Scholar

23 For Antichrist's temptations see Emmerson, , Antichrist in the Middle Ages, 90–93.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., 37–39, 102–03.Google Scholar

25 On Alexander, see Wachtel, Alois, ed., Alexander Minorita Expositio in Apocalypsim, MGH, Quellen zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters (Weimar, 1955); and Sabine Schmolin-sky, Der Apokalypsenkommentar des Alexander Minorita: Zur frühen Rezeption Joachims von Fiore in Deutschland (Hannover, 1991). David Burr discusses Alexander within the context of mendicant Apocalypse commentaries in “Mendicant Readings of the Apocalypse,” in Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, 99–100.Google Scholar

26 For the Alexander Minorita illustrated Apocalypses, see “Census,” pt. 3, 443–46, nos. 118–22. On Master Bertram's altarpiece, now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Kauffmann, C. M., An Altar-piece of the Apocalypse from Master Bertram's Workshop in Hamburg (London, 1968).Google Scholar

27 The seven tempora of church history should not be confused with the Augustinian seven ages of world history, since all tempora take place within the sixth age, that is, within the age instituted by the birth of Christ and to be concluded by his second coming. See Emmerson, Richard K. and Herzman, Ronald B., The Apocalyptic Imagination in Medieval Literature (Philadelphia, 1992), 1–16.Google Scholar

28 Paris, BN MS fr. 167. See “Census,” pt. 3, 462–63, no. 156.Google Scholar

29 “Prefatio Gilberti Pictaviensis,” in Glossa Ordinaria, cum Postilla Nicolai de Lyra et Moralitalibus eiusdem (1509), vol. 6, fol. 239v, Cambridge University Rare Book Room.Google Scholar

30 For Alexander's influence on Nicholas of Lyra, see Burr, David, Olivi's Peaceable Kingdom: A Reading of the Apocalypse Commentary (Philadelphia, 1993), 247–53.Google Scholar

31 Glossa Ordinaria, fol. 251r.Google Scholar

32 The conclusion of the French explanatory text is smudged, but refers to the dissension among “les prelas de sainte eglise pour cause airi[us].”Google Scholar

33 The explanatory text is somewhat confusing because it addresses two distinct scenes combined into the single roundel, the heresy of “anticesabe” (?) and Boethius's opposition: “Ce signifie lerisie de anticesabe et boesce qui presente i liure ou il est escript la deite et humanite sont une persone en ihucrist.”Google Scholar

34 For color details of the two roundels on this folio, see Backhouse, , Bedford Hours, figs. 44–45.Google Scholar

35 Gough (Account, 62 [n. 4 above]) notes that the interpretation appears to confuse Pope Symmachus with Boethius's father-in-law, Symmachus, who with Boethius was executed by Theodoric. But the army of horsemen is given both a general and specific interpretation. They represent in general the persecution of Christianity by the Goths and two more specific events, the imprisonment of the pope and the strangling of Boethius and Symmachus. The text reads: “Ce signifie la persecucion que lez gothz firent a christiente et mistient le pape en prison, estranglier boesce et simache.”Google Scholar

36 This may be the most unusual interpretive roundel in the Apocalypse series. The interpretation of the biblical text, in which John takes the book from the angel (Apoc. 10:8), is clear, as the French text explains: “Ce signifie que nostre seigneur ihesu crist reuelera lez choses qui sont auenir.” It is not clear how the roundel illustrates this interpretation, however, since the connection between animal dissection and prophetic knowledge is pagan and hardly appropriate to a biblical book that is thoroughly opposed to pagan ritual. Perhaps the artist mistakenly read lièvre (hare) for livre (book).Google Scholar

37 See Backhouse, , Bedford Hours, fig. 33.Google Scholar

38 Ibid., fig. 34.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., fig. 35.Google Scholar

40 The French text explains that Antichrist, a false prophet, will accomplish marvelous deeds: “et il fera choses merueilleuses et orribles.” The scene may reflect the expectation that Antichrist will work many false miracles, including making statues speak. See Emmerson, , Antichrist in the Middle Ages (n. 13 above), 134.Google Scholar

41 See Backhouse, , Bedford Hours, fig. 36.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., fig. 37.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., fig. 38.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., fig. 39.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., fig. 40.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., fig. 41.Google Scholar

47 Ibid., fig. 42.Google Scholar

48 The scrolls appear to confuse Jerome and Augustine; the only cardinal is identified as Augustine and a bishop is identified as Jerome.Google Scholar