Funeral Mass 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. The first lesson from Matins for the Office opens with the illuminated initial 'P' (Parca michi domine nichil enim sunt) painted with white, red, blue and gold ivy-leaf ornament. The miniature is painted in demi-grisaille with pigments and gold and depicts the Funeral Mass for the deceased. The shrouded catafalque (raised bier) is surrounded by mourners in a cathedral interior, black-hooded mourners holding candles, tonsured monks including Benedictines (white habit with black cloak), and a Franciscan (brown habit with corded rope belt), priests, and deacons holding paten (plate) and thurible (censer). Other mourners sit in stalls decorated with indistinguishable heraldic devices. A priest stands at a lectern near the altar leading the service. Additional hooded mourners with candles surround the page. The number of mourners in the margins is reduced on the verso.