The Hours of the Virgin (use of Sarum) and the Hours of the Dead, written in Suffolk probably at Bury St. Edmunds, after 1460 and before 1481.

Book of Hours. England (Bury St. Edmunds), S. XV 2/2, open to Folio 16

The floral decoration of bluebells and spring flowers is similar to that found in a group of manuscripts of the Middle English poet and monk of Bury, John Lydgate, which have been localized by Kathleen Scott to Bury St. Edmunds itself.

Detail of note recording the death of Elizabeth Whitbrede

The manuscript bears notes in its calendar and on its flyleaves recording the birth and death of Mary Whitbrede on 21 April 1481 and of John Whitbrede on 8 June 1484 in Fulbourne, Cambridgeshire, ca. 23 miles east of Bury, and the death of Elizabeth Whitbrede in July of 1485.

The manuscript is in its original binding of tawed hide over beveled oak boards sewn on five thongs. The front and rear pastedowns, which appear to have been conjunct, are from a mid-twelfth-century service book with music notation, probably written at the Benedictine abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. They contain portions of the texts for the Nativity of the Virgin (8 September) and the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September)

   
Front and rear pastedowns containing portions of the texts for the
Nativity of the Virgin and the Exaltation of the Cross

A number of leaves, which presumably contained illuminations or profuse decorations in the fashion of the page shown, have been excised at the beginnings of the textual divisions. It may be possible to identify at least some of these in time.

R.H. & M.A. Rouse MS 52