Taymouth Hours (BL Yates Thompson MS 13)
Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis secundum usum Angliae
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
The Taymouth Hours (British Library Yates Thompson MS 13) is one of the most richly illuminated English books of hours from the first half of the fourteenth century, argued by Kathryn Smith to have been commissioned by Philippa of Hainault as a betrothal gift for Eleanor of Woodstock in 1331, supported by a Wardrobe Book entry recording payment to Richard of Oxford for two Books of Hours. Its contents include a calendar, Hours of the Virgin, Penitential Psalms, Gradual Psalms, Litany, and Office of the Dead, accompanied by nearly 400 narrative miniatures. The margins contain hunting scenes, romance narrative, and saints' lives, giving the book an unusually wide devotional and cultural range. At nearly every turn the images and prayers are calibrated for a young noblewoman learning how to inhabit a Christian day.
Why it still matters
The fifteen Gradual Psalms (Psalms 120–134) at the heart of this Hours are among the most accessible entry points to daily psalm-prayer: traditionally associated with pilgrimage and ascent, they can be read as a weekly cycle, one or two psalms per day, as a sustained prayer of trust and dependence on God.
Kept alongside
Psalterium (Psalter for royal and court devotion)
Psalterium
The Latin Psalter — the 150 biblical Psalms with liturgical additions — was the primary daily prayer book of every medieval royal household chapel, used for the Divine Office and private devotion. Hungarian royal scriptorium production is attested under Béla III (1172–1196), who patronized manuscript production at Esztergom, and the Pray Codex's sacramentary component presupposes the Psalter's daily use. While no specific Arpad or Anjou royal psalter survives with a named owner, the Anjou court's documented Bolognese manuscript commissions make royal psalter-hours all but certain, and the psalter was the universal foundation of medieval Christian prayer life without exception. Weekly recitation of all 150 Psalms was the structural backbone of the Divine Office as practiced in every Hungarian royal chapel of this era.
Gospel Sequences (Four Evangelical Readings)
Passiones / Sequentiae Evangeliorum
The Gospel Sequences are four short selected readings — John 1:1–14 (the Prologue), Luke 1:26–38 (the Annunciation), Matthew 2:1–12 (the Magi), and Mark 16:14–20 (the Great Commission) — which open virtually every Book of Hours as the first devotional text after the calendar. They were read in this deliberate theological order: first the eternal mystery of the Incarnation, then the historical moment of the Annunciation, then the Nativity proclaimed to the nations, then the mission of the Church to the world. The sequence gave every prayer session a Christological foundation before the Hours of the Virgin and the Penitential Psalms commenced. For noble children learning Latin from the Book of Hours, these four passages were among the first complete scriptural texts committed to memory.
Seven Penitential Psalms with Litany of the Saints
Psalmi Poenitentiales cum Litaniis Sanctorum
The Seven Penitential Psalms — Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 — together with the ensuing Litany of the Saints form a discrete devotional unit present in every Book of Hours associated with the Medici queens: Smith-Lesouëf 42, NAL 82, and MS. Douce 112. In Smith-Lesouëf 42 this section is introduced by a full-page miniature of King David at prayer, linking royal penitence to its scriptural archetype. The Litany that follows invokes God's mercy through the intercession of apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, concluding with prayers for both the living and the dead. These texts served as the recognised penitential devotion for royal persons during periods of crisis, war, and personal bereavement.