Nativity

This folio depicts the Nativity story, which is often read during the hour of Prime in the Hours of the Virign. More importantly, it can be used to help identify the "Use" of a Book of Hours. The term "Use" refers to the manner in which the book would have been used according to local customs. Therefore, the Use of a Book of Hours is indicative of the area in which it was made.

The most common way to determine the Use of a Book of Hours is to examine certain words appearing in the Hours of the Virgin, specifically the 2 or 3 words following the word antiphon and the word capitulum in the Offices of Prime and None. Scholars have determined that these particular words indicate the Use of a Book of Hours, and thus the area in which the book was made. In A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, Christopher de Hamel included a table correlating certain words following antiphon and capitulum with particular "Use". Although de Hamel does not mention the Use of Tours, I managed to identify the words needed to determine that the Du Bourg Book of Hours was made in Tours. According to my research, to indicate the Use of Tours, in the Office of Prime, the words following antiphon should be O admirabile and the words following capitulum should be Exultata es.

I have worked with Professor Relihan, and found that the words following antiphon on folio 27 recto are indeed O admirable. However, I was unable to locate the word capitulum or its following words. Hopefully, future researchers will have more success in finding this part of the puzzle and be able to verify that the Use of the Du Bourg Book of Hours is Tours and that it really was made in Tours. 

Text sources:

Catalogue of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, (Lyon: Chiswick Press,1906),http://books.google.com/booksid=Yek61HZXsdwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. 21, April 2014.

Christopher De Hamel. A History of Illuminated Manuscripts. Boston: Phaidon Press Limited, 1986.

Joel Relihan, Professor of classics at Wheaton College. Helped translate and read the Latin text. April 2014.

Evelyn Staudinger, Professor of art history at Wheaton College. Discussed how to determine the use of a book of hours. March and April 2014.

Image source:

http://mdid.wheatoncollege.edu/result.aspx, accessed April 16, 2014.