Summerfield C65: Ownership in the Margins

Summerfield C65: Ownership in the Margins

A sequence of owners seemed compelled to express their ownership of Summerfield C65. Their unique penmanship reveals how subsequent caretakers inscribed themselves into this Book of Hours. These five-hundred-year-old pages contain twelve long-dead voices who wrote claims of ownership, signatures, short poems, and reminders of God or other saints – all written to establish their individual, personal connection to their book. These inscriptions vary in placement, located either on the blank pages towards the front cover or at the end of the book, in the margins of significant pages, or alongside full-page illuminations. Each new hand adds a new layer to the text, allowing for readers of today to consider, for instance, who was the nun “Judith de Croy” and how did she acquire this text at the now-destroyed “parish in Tournai"? Who was the “Mademoiselle” who received this book as a gift from “Quintin de Montmorency,” who never wanted her to forget him? And who was the mysterious character who struck out previous owners' signatures on the front page, only to emphasize his own? Each hand brings a new voice to life, and through transcribing and translating these voices, we can further understand the use and afterlife of this Book of Hours.

Summerfield C65

Spencer Research Library Special Collections, University of Kansas

c. 1505

Book of Hours

Spencer Research Library Special Collections, Summerfield C65, fols. flyleaf–a_ir, a_viiiv–b_ir, d_ivv–d_vr, e_iv–e_iir, h_iiiv–h_ivr, k_viiv–k_viiir, back flyleaf

Ink on vellum, printed Book of Hours