The Hours of Isabella Stuart

Prayer Creator celi and scenes from the Pilgrimage of the Human Life

Texts and Images

The prayer to God beginning Creator celi (‘Creator of the sky’) has a full-page frontispiece showing the Virgin and Child with Saints Peter and Paul, angels and the Trinity. There are marginal miniatures on every page. The first five complete the cycle of the French poem Pilgrimage of the Human Life. They are followed by two images of a woman in black, the manuscript’s patron, praying to Christ at an altar.

 

 

 

 

The marginal image belongs to the Pilgrimage of the Human Life cycle. The prayer is addressed to God as ‘Creator of the sky.’ It contains female forms and some can be seen on this page: peccatrix non sum digna (line 7) and serva tua (line 12). They indicate that the manuscript was made for the use of a woman. She is depicted in two marginal images at the end of the prayer (fols. 139v, 140r).