The Da Costa Hours

The Da Costa Hours is currently in the collection of The Morgan Library, where it is cataloged as MS M.399. The Da Costa Hours is a book of hours from c. 1515, and was probably originally made for a member of the Sá family, the royal house of Portugal. The SaÌ arms in a blue and silver checkered pattern are painted beneath the Da Costa arms on fol. 1v. By ca. 1520 the Da Costa book of hours was owned by Don Alvaro da Costa (his arms are on the flyleaf), King Manuel’s armorer.

The Da Costa Hours were probably created. c. 1515 and include the Hours of the Virgin, a calendar after the use of Strassburg, and the Office of the Dead (use of Rome). The text is modeled closely on the Ortulus Anime, printed in 1498.[ref]See this catalog page at the Morgan.[/ref]

The artist behind most of the full page illuminated is Simon Bening, the primary artist responsible for the illuminations in the Golf Book. Being was strongly influenced by the full page illustrations of landscapes in the Très Riches Heures of Jean Duc de Berry. Almost all of the Da Costa Hours pages are available in a digital facsimile on The Morgan Library’s Web site.

These are the DaCosta Hours pages discussed on Celtic Studies Resources:

January fol. 2v

February fol. 3v

March fol. f.4v

April fol. 5v

May fol. 6v

June fol. 7v

July fol. 8v

August fol. 9v

September fol. 10v

October fol. 11v

November fol. 12v

December fol. 13v