BLThe Bedford Hours MS Additional 18850 f 150v

The Bedford Master was a manuscript illuminator active in Paris during the fifteenth century. He is named for the work he did on two books illustrated for

John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford (20 June 1389 – 14 September 1435) was a medieval English prince, general, and statesman who commanded England's armies in France during a critical phase of the Hundred Years' War. Bedford was the third son ...

between 1415 and 1435. One is the Bedford Hours, a

book of hours A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

(Add. MS 18850); the other, the Salisbury Breviary, is in the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

(MS lat. 17294). Another manuscript is in the

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. The Bedford Master is known to have been the head of a

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

; his chief assistant is known as the Chief Associate of the Bedford Master. Recent scholarship has tended to move from talking about the "Bedford Master" to the "Bedford Workshop" and even the Bedford Trend, a term introduced by Millard Meiss in 1967, which includes a wider period leading up to the key Bedford works. A "Master of the Bedford Trend" has also been attributed with some works. One possible candidate for the identity of the Bedford Master is "Haincelin of

Hagenau Haguenau (; or ; ; historical ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Bas-Rhin Département in France, department of France, of which it is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture. It is second in size in the Bas-Rhin only to Strasbourg ...

" in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, who was recorded in Paris between 1403 and 1424, and was perhaps the father of "Jean Haincelin", active between at least 1438 and 1449, and was perhaps the "Dunois Master" who has been given a group of late Bedford-style manuscripts.

Manuscripts

For John, Duke of Bedford:Royal, 52–53 * Bedford Hours, British Library, Add. MS 18850 *Salisbury Breviary, BnF, MS Lat. 17294 *Hours of John Sobieski (named after its owner in the 17th century), Royal Collection, in part *Pontifical of Poitiers, now lost *Hours and Psalter, British Library, Add. MS 74754 *Hours,

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of Vienna. Since 2005, some of the collection ...

, Cod. 1855 (Source: Björn R. Tammen, "Prayers and beyond" in "Prospettive di iconografia musicale" (2007)

Notes

References

*"Royal": McKendrick, Scot, Lowden, John and Doyle, Kathleen, (eds), ''Royal Manuscripts, The Genius of Illumination'', 2011, British Library, 9780712358156 {{Authority control (arts) 15th-century French painters French manuscript illuminators Anonymous artists Year of birth unknown