SS James Minor and Philip 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. Beneath rubrics in blue, a prayer to James and Philip opens with the illuminated initial ‘S’ (Si manseritis in me et verba mea in vobis manserint) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament (most of the gold is lost). It is one of an unusually large series of forty-seven suffrages, or short prayers to saints, arranged hierarchically. The section opens with a number of prefatory prayers, followed by the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts Saints Philip and James Minor (or James the Less) holding the instruments of their martyrdom. Although Philip holds an axe suggesting he was beheaded, he is more traditionally believed to have been crucified. However, beheading was often the final means of death for a martyr following a series of other tortures. James’ martyrdom is recorded in the Golden Legend, a popular collection of hagiographies (saints’ lives). A man came forward from an angry crowd and beat the saint to death with a fuller’s club (a tool used for cleaning wool). Each saint also holds a book, a sign of their piety, and both are again shown with books in the lower margin. A man with a sword beckons the saints toward their martyrdom as columbines (aquilegia), a symbol of the Holy Spirit, appear to fly up the right margin.