Van Alphen Hours, Initial H with the Sudarium with the face of Christ, Walters Manuscript W.782, fol. 58r

Van Alphen Hours, Initial H with the Sudarium with the face of Christ, Walters Manuscript W.782, fol. 58r, originally uploaded by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts.

his Dutch Book of Hours was made for a female patron, possibly pictured on fol. 109r, in the mid fifteenth century. Originally richly illuminated by the workshop of the Master of Catherine of Cleves, the manuscript now lacks all of its full-page miniatures, although the eight surviving historiated initials speak to its original grandeur. Its rebinding in the seventeenth century resulted in the loss of several folios and the reordering of many of the texts. While the catalog description here remains faithful to the order of the texts as they appear today, an attempt has been made within the individual parts to reconstruct the original layout of the manuscript.