Hours of Pierre de Rohan Gié Facsimile Edition

The Hours of Pierre de Rohan Gié stands as a refined example of Northern French book illumination from around 1500, most likely produced in Rouen. This lavish Book of Hours—partly in Latin, with a French calendar—embodies the devotional sophistication of late medieval court culture. Written in a clear Gothic Textualis Quadrata (textura book hand), the manuscript reveals the precision and elegance characteristic of Rouen’s professional scriptoria at the dawn of the sixteenth century.

Although traditionally associated with the powerful Breton family of Rohan, modern research questions this attribution. As Czech art historian Milada Studničková observes, the manuscript may not have been commissioned directly by the Rohan family; rather, the French ownership inscriptions connecting it to Pierre II de Rohan, Maréchal de Gié (1451–1513), appear to have been added later. This opens a broader discussion about the circulation and reattribution of luxury devotional books across European courts and collectors.

Devotion and Diplomacy: From Rouen to Prague

Books of Hours first flourished at the French royal court in Paris during the fourteenth century, spreading throughout Europe as prized symbols of literacy, piety, and social prestige. Emperor Charles IV himself is known to have studied from a Marian Book of Hours—a sign of how deeply this genre permeated courtly education and private devotion.

The Hours of Pierre de Rohan Gié represents a later, cosmopolitan phase of this tradition. Crafted in Rouen—one of the foremost centers of illumination—it combines formal calligraphy, brilliant pigments, and complex marginal ornament. Its survival in Prague underscores the transnational movement of devotional manuscripts between France and Central Europe, and its eventual presence in Sychrov Castle attests to the collecting interests of the Rohan family in exile during the nineteenth century.

Artistic Collaboration and Missing Leaves

The manuscript’s illumination was executed by at least four distinct artists, whose hands can be distinguished through color palette, figure style, and border design. Illuminator A produced the large historiated miniatures—such as the Annunciation and Crucifixion—in a robust, angular style akin to the Master of the Geneva Latini and the Master of the Échevinage of Rouen.

Illuminator B contributed smaller narrative scenes and suffrages, perhaps from the circle of Jean Pichore. Illuminator C painted the calendar vignettes and marginal scenes in a lighter, more linear hand, while Illuminator D specialized in ornamental borders—naturalistic foliage, insects, and gold-sprinkled tendrils reminiscent of Rouen’s finest ateliers around 1500.

Although the book survives in remarkable condition, one folio—beginning the Penitential Psalms—was removed, probably because it contained an especially fine miniature. Its current whereabouts remain unknown, offering a tantalizing mystery for future rediscovery in public or private collections.

Script Identification

The main text is written in a meticulous Gothic Textualis Quadrata, a late Gothic book hand marked by vertical strokes, diamond-shaped feet, and tight rhythmic spacing. Rubrics appear in minium (red lead), sometimes showing humanistic influence in proportion and letter form. The calendar section, written in French, employs a slightly more cursive textura, typical of Rouen manuscripts around 1500. Together, these features situate the codex firmly within the Rouen school of calligraphy and illumination at the turn of the sixteenth century.

Provenance and Ownership

The manuscript’s early history remains uncertain. It was likely produced for an anonymous noble or clerical patron in Rouen, not for the Rohan family itself. During the seventeenth or eighteenth century, French inscriptions were added, naming it the Heures de Rohan—the earliest documentary link to that lineage. By the nineteenth century, the book was in the Rohan family collection at Sychrov Castle, from which it entered the National Library of the Czech Republic in 1951, where it remains today as MS VI.D.25. The title Rohanské hodinky (“Rohan Hours”) originates from this Czech period of its custodial history.

Spiritual Intimacy in Paint and Gold

The Hours of Pierre de Rohan Gié bridges personal devotion and artistic display. Its miniatures transform prayer into vision—inviting the reader into scenes of divine contemplation framed by intricate floral margins and shimmering gold grounds. As a devotional object, it served both as a private prayer companion and as a work of art expressing the late medieval conviction that beauty was a pathway to faith.