Abstract

The Psalter-Hours of Bonne of Luxembourg is a small illuminated manuscript and personal prayer book that was made in Paris in the mid-fourteenth century for the Duchess of Normandy’s daily private devotional practice. While the texts are mostly in Latin, the manuscript concludes with a selection of prayers that meditate on Christ’s Passion, written in vernacular French. The two final illuminated pages from this section, The Crucifixion and The Wound of Christ, form a distinctly climactic moment in the manuscript and have drawn much attention from scholars of Medieval piety.
In this thesis, the Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg serves as a case study to examine how political and theological developments of the early fourteenth century influenced the private devotional practice of Bonne of Luxembourg. My analysis takes into account the historical context of lay women’s use of devotional literature, Bonne’s monastic upbringing, the Valois court and theories of vision from the Patristic era that were highly influential during the late Middle Ages. This thesis argues how the portrait of Bonne and her husband, John II of France, in the Crucifixion miniature along with its accompanying prayers and marginalia provide evidence that her prayer book may have facilitated a visual devotional strategy that prepared her for the visio Dei, or the beatific vision of God, which was a subject of particular importance in Paris during Bonne’s lifetime.