[Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis]

The original total of leaves is likely to have been 118, with the majority of the missing leaves likely to have contained illuminations and been cut out in post-medieval times.

Decoration: Three 8 to 9-line illuminated initials, infilled with flower foliage, on gold grounds, and within full bar borders decorated with flowers. One 8-line initial in gold on halved red-blue ground. 2-line chapter initials in gold throughout.

Written in textualis quadrata.

Three scribes worked on the manuscript: the first wrote ff. 10r-21v, the second ff. 1r-6v, 21v, 23r-83v, and the third (working later than the first two) wrote and inserted ff. 7-9, 22, and 84-87.

Principal contents: ff. 1-6v Calendar; ff. 7r-9v Prayers; ff. 10r-27v Hours of the Virgin; ff. 28r-30r Salve Regina; ff. 30v-33r O intemerata, and Obsecro te; ff. 33v-35v Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary; ff. 35v-40r Ad ymaginem domini ihesu christi; ff. 41r-54v Penitential Psalms; ff. 45v-50r Litany; ff. 51r-64v Office of the dead; ff. 65r-73v The Commendations of Souls; ff. 74r-83v Psalms of the Passion; ff. 84r-87v Prayers; ff. 88r-91v Prayers and short texts in Latin, except for a stanza in English on 90r 'O blessed lord' and another on 91r 'Whoo lyst to trowbull'.

Acquired for the Brotherton Collection from a Christie's sale on 2 December 1987 (lot 32).

See for a fuller description: O. S. Pickering, Two Tudor Poems in a Latin Book of Hours, in: Leeds Studies in English, N.S. 25 (1994), pp. 159-166.