Prayerbook Origins
Though the prayerbook’s inscriptions tell us that it remained in Canon Grandel’s ownership for a time in the 18th century, we do not know much of its origins – when it was created, where it was created, and who originally owned it.
Here’s what we DO know, along with some speculation.
Canon Grandel
Canon François-Joseph Grandel was an 18th century Catholic priest ordained in the diocese of Tournai, France, which included the city of Lille. Fr. Grandel was installed as Canon of the Collégiale Saint-Pierre de Lille on September 11, 1766, and his portrait remains in the collections of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille in Lille to this day.
French ecclesiastical historian Édouard Hautcoeur records that Canon Grandel was listed as serving Collégiale Saint-Pierre in the general calendar for French Flanders in 1777. He also notes that Canon Grandel got into a land contract dispute with the neighbouring priory in 1781 and witnessed the Collégiale’s statement of accounts in March of 1783.
Sources: Hautcoeur, Édouard. Auteur du texte. 1896. Histoire de l’église collégiale et du chapitre de Saint-Pierre de Lille. Tome 3 / par E. Hautcoeur, A. Picard (Paris).
Sargan, J. D, Jessica J Lockhart, Andrew J Nelson, D. L Meert-Williston, and Alexandra Gillespie. 2022. “The Ghosts of Bindings Past: Micro-Computed X-Ray Tomography for the Study of Bookbinding.” Digital Philology 11 (1): 142–73. https://doi.org/10.1353/dph.2022.0009.
The French Revolution
Unfortunately, the Collégiale Saint-Pierre de Lille was destroyed in the French revolution. Hautcoeur records that the canons celebrated their final Divine Office together on November 5, 1790 before being forced to leave the very next day.
Canon Grandel did not return to Lille afterward, and instead resided in the nearby town of Haubourdin until his death on June 15, 1815.
We do not know what became of the prayerbook directly after it passed out of his care.
Provenance
Les Capucins de Lille
A faint inscription on the back flyleaf of the prayerbook reads: à la bibliothèque des Capucins de Lille.
According to the bookseller, there is also an erased inscription on folio 1r that is visible under UV light. It reads: des Capucins de Lille. From this, we can include that the prayerbook must have been part of the library collection at the Capuchin monastery at Lille.
The original Capuchin monastery in Lille, France was opened in 1594, but was destroyed during the French Revolution. However, it was later rebuilt during the Restoration (c. 1830) and remained in operation for another century. Given that Canon Grandel passed away in 1815, it is possible that the prayerbook went to the Capuchins after his death.
Provenance
From the Capuchins to Western University
If the Capuchin monastery at Lille closed c. 1930, what became of the prayerbook afterward?
I contacted the bookseller who sold the prayerbook to Western – King Alfred’s Notebook LLC – and they said that they had acquired it from a Paris estate.
Perhaps when the Capuchin monastery closed, the prayerbook passed into the hands of an antiquarian, who later sold it to King Alfred’s Notebook LLC, from whom Western acquired the prayerbook.
Many possibilities!
Historical & Religious Context
The Liturgy of the Hours
Medieval books of hours have their origins in the Officium Divinum (Divine Office), the divine duty to pray and meditate upon the psalms. This practice was communal in nature, even from the start, with early Christians meeting to pray vespers in common at sunset.
In the 5th century CE, St. Benedict – the father of western monasticism – wrote his monastic Rule, which included instructions for when his monks should meet to pray in common, and described which psalms and prayers they ought to pray, and at which times they ought to pray them. A few centuries later, the Carolingian reforms of Charlemagne required that all monks across the Holy Roman Empire pray the Hours in common at their respective monasteries, and by the 12th century, the Divine Office was codified in the form of the breviary.
Source: Taft, Robert F. 1986. The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West : The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.
The Medieval Book of Hours
In the Medieval period, there was a growing interest among laypeople to model their own personal devotional practices after monastics. But the Divine Office has a complex structure, with many variations depending on the liturgical calendar, customary uses for different monasteries, and other local uses for churches, dioceses, or communities.
Medieval books of hours, as personal prayerbooks, have their origins in the psalter – collections of the psalms which laypeople would pray in common, usually at the beginning and end of each day. As interest grew, by the 11th century, lay psalters began to include offices (like the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary). According to Victoria Reinburg: “Over time the… offices grew longer, and eventually detached from the psalter to form a distinct book – the book of hours. The earliest books of hours date from the first half of the thirteenth century, and were produced nearly simultaneously in France, England, and other places.”
Sources: Reinburg, Virginia. 2012. French Books of Hours : Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400-1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Taft, Robert F. 1986. The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West : The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.
French Books of Hours
The earliest French books of hours centred on the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and included psalms, suffrages of the saints, the litany of the saints, and the office of the dead, along with petitions, collects, and other popular prayers, which Reinburg notes “may have been chosen especially for the book’s original owner.”
All texts were in Latin, with rubrics in the vernacular to instruct people on how to pray the prayers and offices.
This is precisely what we see in Canon Grandel’s prayerbook. The segments which have the most likelihood of personalisation are the psalms (with the amount of wear on the folio containing psalm 129 indicating it may have been an especial favourite), the Litany of the Saints, and the suffrages. It is a pity the liturgical calendar is missing altogether, as it has the potential to be the most personal inclusion in a medieval book of hours, listing the feast days of favourite saints, family member’s birthdays, and more.
Hours of the BVM
The Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary form the core of medieval books of hours. They are divided into eight canonical hours, each of which mark significant events in the Virgin’s life: the Annunciation (matins), her visit to Elizabeth (lauds), the birth of Jesus (prime), the annunciation to the shepherds (terce), the epiphany (sext), the purification in the temple (none), the flight into Egypt (vespers), and Mary’s coronation in heaven (compline).
Source: Reinburg, Virginia. 2012. French Books of Hours : Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400-1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Medieval Marian Devotion
The figure of Mary, Mother of God, was of special interest in medieval devotion because she was viewed as the ideal human being – a nurturing mother who made the choice to live a life without sin because of her intense devotion to the will of God.
During an historical period wherein the Catholic Church had fallen into corruption, the Blessed Virgin became an object of admiration because she was fully human and remained faithful to God even as she suffered sorrow, loss, and grief – things which were ever present in medieval daily life. In her, medieval Catholics could see their own potential and gain a powerful intercessor whose prayers could offer them peace and protection in a world fraught with suffering.
Source: Reynolds, Brian K. 2012. Gateway to Heaven: Marian Doctrine and Devotion, Image and Typology in the Patristic and Medieval Periods. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press.
Explore Canon Grandel’s Prayerbook
Discover the intricacies of this unique book of hours, from its codicology, to its history, provenance, and the Holy Hours themselves.
Prayerbook Overview
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Codicological Analysis
Dive into the archaeology of the prayerbook.
The Holy Hours
Discover the prayerbook’s devotional prayers and offices.