Vic, Museu Episcopal de Vic, MS 88

Book of Hours of Bishop Morgades Facsimile Edition

Our price

More Buying Choices

Request Info

A testament to nineteenth-century bibliophilia, the Book of Hours of Bishop Morgades is a compilation of pages from diverse sources assembled to create an object of visual delight. It features four full-page and twenty-one smaller miniatures in a text richly ornamented with border decorations.

Although the collection of fifty-five leaves is called a book of hours, it functions more as an album of miniatures derived from different devotional books to create a picture book with fragmented text. Such a curious assembly thus renders the Latin text incoherent: it serves no viable devotional use.

A Miscellany of Miniatures

Made as a gift for Bishop Morgades between 1891and 1899, the "codex" began as a collection of leaves extracted from a manuscript that appears to be a late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century product of the Ghent-Bruges school (fols. 1-10, 12, 16, 37-55). Three groups of pages were added to the book, the first two of which date from around 1400-1410 and feature the work of an Iberian artist and Netherlandish painters (fols. 33-36), while the final group consists of pages with marginal illuminations from a Netherlandish manuscript of the fifteenth century (fols. 11, 13-15, 17-32).

A Miniature Attributed to a Catalan Illuminator

The most remarkable aspect of the manuscript's art is the presence of a full-page miniature of Saint John the Evangelist by Rafael Destorrents (fol. 33v), a Spanish illuminator active around 1400. His work is in the International Style of the period: the saint is presented as a gently swaying figure with delicate facial features and wavy hair isolated against a patterned background.

Copious Marginal Decoration

Many of the manuscript's pages include either painted borders or vignettes in the margins that depict a range of subjects, including domestic chores, flora and fauna, fantastic creatures, jewels, and ornamental vessels in niches, as well as fictive works of art.

A Glorious Confection

The resulting visual anthology was termed a book of hours based on the fragments of text included. The fine, Gothic Texualis script is handsomely enhanced with decorated initials and trompe-l'oeil floral motifs. Although the conditions guiding the production of this codex are not ideally suited to modern standards of conservation, the book offers glimpses into the manuscripts from which its leaves derive.

Bishop José Morgades i Gili (1826-1901) received this creation in a beautiful gold-embroidered velvet binding. An important patron of Catalan artistic heritage, the bishop was instrumental in the foundation of the Museu Episcopal de Vic, which became the manuscript’s current home.

We have 1 facsimile edition of the manuscript "Book of Hours of Bishop Morgades": Libro de Horas del Obispo Morgades facsimile edition, published by Millennium Liber, 2009

Request Info / Price
Manuscript book description compiled by Erene Rafik Morcos.
Please Read
International social justice movements and the debates that ensued prompted us to start considering the contents of our website from a critical point of view. This has led us to acknowledge that most of the texts in our database are Western-centered. We have asked the authors of our content to be aware of the underlying racial and cultural bias in many scholarly sources, and to try to keep in mind multiple points of view while describing the manuscripts. We also recognize that this is yet a small, first step towards fighting inequality.

If you notice any trace of racist or unjust narratives in our communications, please help us be part of the change by letting us know.

Libro de Horas del Obispo Morgades

Madrid: Millennium Liber, 2009

  • Commentary (Italian, Spanish) by Planas Badenas, Josefina; Gudayol, Anna
  • Limited Edition: 995 copies
  • Full-size color reproduction of the entire original document, Book of Hours of Bishop Morgades: the facsimile attempts to replicate the look-and-feel and physical features of the original document; pages are trimmed according to the original format; the binding might not be consistent with the current document binding.

Printed on special parchment-like aged paper; hot printed gold laminas, the book is presented in a special plexiglass and wooden case, together with a commentary volume.

Distributed in Italy by Il Bulino, edizioni d'arte.

Binding

Cover in green embroidered velvet with metal lock.

Our Price

More Buying Choices

Request Info