Medieval book of hours returns to Utrecht

The Special Collections house a new manuscript: a book of hours containing a Utrecht dragon. These small dragons were used to illuminate Utrecht manuscripts. In the book of hours this was done in the typical ‘Crown and dragon-style’. This shows that the manuscript must have been made around 1470, when this style was popular. After many ramblings and sustained damages it has finally returned to Utrecht.

Around 1470 numerous books of hours were made in Utrecht. They were meant for men and women not belonging to a religious order, but who wanted to lead a pious life and, at fixed times and at special occasions, wanted to pray the correct prayers and read the proper texts. For the wealthy, books of hours were illuminated with miniatures and shining gold and silver. In the newly acquired book of hours (Ms. 35 A 18) the illuminated leaves have all been removed, probably by dealers who sold them piece by piece to get a higher price. However, what remains is still an important witness of the Utrecht production of manuscripts for citizens and the nobility at the end of the 15th century.

The manuscript is now called the Gumbert-Gerritsen Book of Hours, after two of its previous owners: Peter Gumbert (1936-2016), professor of western paleography and manuscript studies in Leiden, and his student and close friend Gisela Gerritsen-Geywitz (1934-2023), a specialist in the Utrecht penwork that also adorns this manuscript. It has been donated to Special Collections by the children of Gisela and Wim Gerritsen (1935-2019), professor of medieval Dutch literature in Utrecht.

If you want to know more about the book of hours and how it turned up again in Utrecht, please read the online article 'The Gumbert-Gerritsen Book of Hours: loose leaves connected by friendship'. The manuscript has also been digitised, just like all medieval manuscripts of Utrecht University Library.