Hours of Philip the Bold (Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 3-1954 & Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, MS 11035-37)

Presentation in the Temple, 
Fitzwilliam Museum MS 3-1964, f. 104r.

Colloquial name(s): Hours of Philip the Bold

Official name(s): Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 3-1954 and Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, MS 11035-37

Date: 1376-79, 1390, c. 1445-50 and 1451 (source)

Origin: Paris, France then Bruges, Flanders then Brabant, Brussels (source)

Online fascimile available via: select folios available via the Fitzwilliam Museum's Illuminated: Manuscripts in the Making, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, MS 11035-37 not currently online

This manuscript was produced in two main campaigns. The first was initiated by Philip the Bold in 1376 and paid for in 1379 with a few texts and images added in 1390 (source). This part was carried out by leading members of the Parisian book trade, commisioned by Guillaume de Valen, Philip the Bold's confessor (source). The second campaign of production was completed in 1451 for Philip's grandson, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy (1419-67) (source). This part was carried out by Flemish scribes and artists working in Bruges and Brussels (source).

The result of this second campaign was that the book became so large it had to be bound in two volumes (source). The first volume is Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 3-1954 and contains all 150 images from the original campaign and 17 illuminations from the second campaign (source). The second volume is Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, MS 11035-37 and contains only 15th C images (source). 

The original campaign contains one full-page and ten large miniatures plus one historiated initial, ten base-de-page scenes and 128 small miniatures (source). The second campaign contains one full-page, five large and eleven small miniatures (source). The 14th C illustrations are thought to have been produced by the Master of the Coronation Book (source).

Basic descriptions of the illustrations are provided by the Fitzwilliam Museum with the facsimile.