Virgin reading from the Coëtivy Hours

Dunois Master, attributed to

Folio with three-quarter page miniature from a book of hours attributed to the Dunois Master, written in Latin and French in a bastarda script, made in Paris and dated 1443–1445. It was commissioned by Prigent de Coëtivy (1399?–1450) on the occasion of his marriage to Marie de Rais (1429–1457). Removed from the bound volume between 1933 and 1960. A prayer to the Virgin Mary concludes on the recto, illuminated in the margins with angels carrying vessels. On the verso, a prayer to the Virgin Mary opens with the illuminated initial ‘O’ (O domina misericordissima dei genitrix maria) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. It is one of a series of twenty-six prayers to the Virgin Mary in this section of the manuscript. The great many devotions and miniatures dedicated to her is rather unusual. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts Mary reading at an altar in an oratory or chapel, a sign of her piety and holiness. She is accompanied by two angels playing psaltery and lute. Angels in the margins hold vessels signifying her role as the vessel of the Incarnate (vas electum). A river meanders beyond the high walls and tower which enclose Mary within a secluded and protected space, perhaps a reference to her youth spent in prayer and her perpetual virginity.