The Braddyll family’s book of hours
MS Leeds, Brotherton Collection 15, is a 15th century (ca. 1470-1480) illuminated Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis (Book of Hours), produced in England (probably London). The manuscript written in Textualis Quadrata, comprises 177 pages and is of medium size. It contain calendar with many 16th -17th century owners remarkable dates entries as well as four lines verse at the bottom of each month. This liturgical compendium includes Prayers, hours of the passion, virgin and Holy trinity, devotional text, Litany and psalms. The codex also contains later added Prayer, some in English, and Some are Latin prayers and various kinds of notes as a short poem on the seven ages of man.
MS 15 is a pre-reformation devotional codex annotated and deformed during the ownership of three post-reformation family’s branch, The Braddyll, Talbot and White. The Braddyll family’s book of hours illustrates how a Catholic devotional manuscript was preserved and adapted by its successive secular owners during the intense persecution of Catholic beliefs in Lancashire.
7th July – Becket’s translation repaired
29th December – Becket’s Martyrdom erased
Burial service’s minature most of the fiures smeared
A small image, (55×55 mm) show erasure of The Virgin and the son
Salve sancta facies nostri redemptoris
Clean scraped area
Partial scraped area
All saints’ names erased in the litany
Seven Ages of Man
The furst age ys Infancye/that lastyth from the byrth vnto vij yere of age./The second ys Chyldhod/that enduryth vnto xv yere age./The thyrd age ys adholocencye./that enduryth vnto xxv yere of age./The fourth age ys youthe/that enduryth vnto xxxv yere of age./The fyfth age is manhode/that enduryth vnto l yere of age./The vj age ys age that lastyth vnto Ixx yere of age./The vij age of man ys a crepyll that enduryth vnto dethe. [tranlitterate by Brennan, The Braddyll Hours, 15]
The first age is Infancy /that lasteth from the birth unto seven years of age./The second is Childhood/that endureth unto fifteen years of age/The third age is Adolescence/that endureth unto five and twenty years of age/The fourth age is Youth/that continueth unto five and thirty years of age/The fifth age is Manhood/that endureth unto fifty years of age/The sixth age is Age that lasteth unto seventy years of age/The seventh age of man is a Cripple,
that endureth unto death.