Summerfield C65: Personalized Devotion

Summerfield C65: Personalized Devotion

Several changes personalized Summerfield C65 after its initial printing, ranging from the painting of several printed images and rubrics to the inscriptions added by subsequent owners. Among the most distinctive of these is the insertion of a round illumination of Saint Christopher taken from an unknown source. Saint Christopher, the martyred saint of travelers who famously carried the Christ child across a river, thus earning the name Christopher, or “Christ-bearer,” is stitched in adjacent to an original image of Saint Christopher, amplifying his visual and devotional power. It is unknown why the owner added a second image of the saint to this Book of Hours, but we can deduce that Christopher was significant to whoever owned the small-scale painting and this printed book. The image is sewn in precisely, with the knowledge that viewers would see the neat square of stitching on the reverse page. Sewing in this token further personalized this Book of Hours for its owner and may have served as an act of devotion.

Summerfield C65

Spencer Research Library Special Collections, University of Kansas

c. 1505

Book of Hours

Spencer Research Library Special Collections, Summerfield C65, fol. k_vv

Ink on vellum, printed Book of Hours