Poncher Hours

By the late Middle Ages, personal prayer books or "books of hours" were extremely common, especially among the upper classes in Paris, a city renowned for its production of hand-illuminated books. The Poncher Hours is an unusual example of the degree to which books of hours could be highly personalized for the patron it was commissioned for--in this case, Denise Poncher, a young woman from an elite family whose father served as treasurer of wars for the French crown and whose uncle was bishop of Paris. What personalizes this book, which may have been given on the occasion of her wedding, are the many allusions to marriage and motherhood in the selection of specific texts and images, as well as an illustration that includes the bride herself and also a coat of arms combining the Poncher arms with those of her husband, Jean Brosset.

The manuscript includes a rare chapter for personal prayer books--the Hours of the Conception--mixed in with the more common Hours of the Virgin, Hours of the Cross, and Hours of the Holy Spirit. The cycle of illuminations begins with a glorious, delicate full-age miniature of the Virgin in a mandorla flanked by saints Barbara and Catherine. Other illuminations in the manuscript refer to the roles of wife and mother, including Mary Spinning Wool, Anne Teaching the Virgin to Read, and The Virgo Lactans. The selection of prayers considered instructive for a young woman is similarly highly thematic, with topics that range from the theological and cardinal virtues to what to say when greeting the king. The manuscript's texts are written in French and Latin, with some Latin passages punctuated by the personal pronoun "tu" (the familiar "you" in French).