The Savoy Hours

The magnificently illuminated Savoy Hours or rather, the only known remaining fragment of it after almost 600 years, delights the viewer with its marvellous colours, its sparkling gold, and its elegant proportions. Fifty miniatures feature delicate figures set against varied backgrounds decorated with gold grids, lines, sprays, and diapered or checkered patterns. The manuscript was executed in Paris in the workshop of the renowned book illuminator Jean Pucelle and was later completed in a similar style by the Master of the Bible of Jean de Sy. This is a perfect example of sophisticated book art which never fails to fascinate and attract the interest of collectors! As a precious bibliophilic book the Savoy Hours has a heavily gold-tooled binding: it is the most noble fragment of a lost masterpiece (Roger S. Wieck, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York).

Rivalry between Manuscript Patrons

The Savoy Hours had been commissioned in the 1330s by Blanche of Burgundy from the workshop of Jean Pucelle in Paris. For the granddaughter of King Louis IX (Saint Louis) and the widow of the Count of Savoy only the best seemed good enough: a book of hours whose luxurious illumination would set new standards. A number of years after Blanche’s death the sophisticated manuscript made its way into the hands of King Charles V of France, starting a rivalry with his three bibliophile brothers, who competed as manuscript patrons. In particular Jean, Duke of Berry, became obsessed with books of hours: indulging in a veritable manuscript mania, he commissioned, inter alia, the Très Riches Heures.

A History of Fateful Events

In 1409 King Charles VI of France gave the Savoy Hours to his uncle Jean, Duke of Berry. In 1720 it re-emerged as one of the volumes which Duke Victor-Amadeus II of Savoy donated to the university library in Turin. In January 1904 the manuscript was destroyed. In 1910 a monk discovered 26 leaves of the Savoy Hours in the library of Portsmouth Cathedral. They had been gifted to the diocese by John Virtue, first bishop of Portsmouth. Transferred to a safe place during the Second World War, the value of the fragment was recognized in the mid-1960s. When the cathedral was robbed, the fragment was amazingly thrown into some bushes. “For better care”, the cimelia was sold and in 1969 acquired by Yale University.

Exerting a major stylistic influence on the history of book illustration, the Savoy Hours has been highly seminal for our perception of French late Gothic book illumination. The Hours served as a model for the development of the book of hours, the most widespread genre of illustrated text from the late Middle Ages. The manuscript influenced the taste of the two most important patrons of art in the late fourteenth century. They were mainly impressed by its great length, its encyclopaedic cycles of miniatures, and its almost excessive use of portraiture. In the miniatures of the Suffrages (short intercessory prayers), the only part of book that has survived, there are no less than 25 portraits of Blanche of Burgundy, who commissioned the book. She is shown kneeling in front of the saints.

Savoy Hours

Enjoy Viewing a Few Sample Pages:

A Glance at the Facsimile

The sequence from the surviving part of the Savoy Hours reproduced here comprises fols. 7r-9v, exemplifying the style of French late Gothic. In the very delicate and high quality miniatures Blanche of Burgundy, who commissioned the manuscript, is shown praying to various saints: to Benedict (fol. 7r), to Mary Magdalene (fol. 8r) and to Catherine (fol. 8v). On fol. 9r, however, Saint Margaret is represented emerging from the dragon’s belly. The miniature on fol. 7v shows all the confessors, and the one on fol. 9v depicts all the virgins. The two-line initials on gold grounds are embellished with faces, floral ornaments and coats of arms.

The Finest Craft of Bookbinding

In the 18th century the 26 remaining folios of the Savoy Hours received a treasure binding made of leather heavily gold-tooled with a filigree lace pattern (“à la dentelle”). To reproduce such a masterpiece for the facsimile edition true to the original, the bookbinder needs to apply the entire range of his skills as well as his considerable experience in a traditional craft. In a time-consuming process, the ornamental panels for stamping the leather binding are cut by hand. In addition, the facsimile volume is enclosed further in a silk-lined linen cassette, which in turn is protected by a slipcase made of fine red morocco. Like the original, the facsimile of the Savoy Hours is a bibliophilic object, its protective coverings thus literally celebrating a step-by-step approach to its precious content.