Wake/Removal 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. The Litany is followed by the Office of the Dead, read immediately before the requiem or funeral Mass, with Vespers read on the night before and Matins and Lauds on the day of the Mass and burial. In this manuscript, the Office is unusually illuminated with not one but six miniatures. Beneath rubrics in blue, the first nocturne from Matins for the Office opens with the illuminated initial 'V' (Verba mea auribus percipe) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the wake of the deceased. In the upper left corner, the soul of the departed is carried by an angel but hindered by a demon. Secular and religious mourners are gathered around the draped coffin in a candle-lit room to pray. An aspergillum for holy water sits on the table. Behind a curtain a man pays for the services. A black-hooded mourner enters through the door with extra candles, another stands in the right margin. A procession of tonsured monks inhabit the lower margin.