Images: British Library
Other designation(s): Neville of Hornby Hours
Physical description: parchment, 170 × 110 mm, iii+190+iii fols.
Language: Anglo-Norman, French, Latin
Date: 14th cent. (2nd quarter)
Provenance: commissioned and owned by Isabel de Byron in North Lancashire
Contents:
Gospel of Nicodemus (fols. 173r–189v; in Anglo-Norman; accompanied by illuminations)
Additional apocrypha-related illuminations:
fols. 9v–12v: scenes of the life of the Virgin related to the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
fol. 76v: Martyrdom of St Andrew, based on the Passion of Andrew
fols. 94v and 97r: miracle of Christ and the sunbeam, from variant readings in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
Additional contents: book of hours with various poems, psalms, prayers, and commemorations.
Catalogs and studies:
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1888–1893. London: British Museum, 1894 (pp. 463–74).
Millar, Eric. G. English Illuminated Manuscripts of the XIVth and XVth Century. Paris: Van Oest, 1928 (p. 83).
Sandler, Lucy Freeman. Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385. 2 vols. A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 5. London: Harvey Miller, 1986 (no. 115).
Smith, Kathryn A. “Canonizing the Apocryphal: London, British Library MS 2781 and its Visual, Devotional and Social Contexts.” PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1996.
Smith, Kathryn A. “The Neville of Hornby Hours and the Design of Literate Devotion.” Art Bulletin 81 (1999): 72–92 (pls. 1–5, 8–19, 22, 26–27).
Other online databases: Biblissima
Entry created by Tony Burke, York University, 19 May 2026.
