The Golden Calendar (Collection)

The Golden Calendar

The medieval calendar was different from the modern one, having more in common with the ancient Roman calendar until the end of the medieval period. Documents were dated according to regnal years, and the AD system was not introduced until the High Middle Ages. Many medieval manuscripts featured a calendar section, but they were particularly common in the books of hours that became popular during the Late Middle Ages. During the increasingly secular Renaissance, so-called calendar books emerged, which contained a calendar without prayer texts and might be appended by other helpful information in tables. These calendar pages often featured one or more miniatures rendered in expensive paints and gold leaf, usually in the form of medallions or marginalia, which would depict either a major holiday from the month, e.g. commemorating a saint’s martyrdom, the corresponding zodiac sign, or a typical labor of the month, e.g. shearing sheep, harvesting grain, or pressing wine. This last decorative element makes these calendar pages a priceless resource on daily life in the Middle Ages, not only for the activities they portray, but also for the various tools and other objects which are detailed therein. As such, calendar pages are among the most beloved specimens of medieval art.
The 13 single pages presented here represent some of the finest specimens of illuminated medieval calendars to survive to the present:

1. Folio 1: January – Bedford Hours, Paris, ca. 1423–1430

2. Folio 2: February – Les Très riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Paris, ca. 1413

3. Folio 3: March – Rohan Hours, France ca. 1420

4. Folio 4: April – Book of Hours of James IV, Ghent (Bruges), ca. 1503–1513

5. Folio 5: May – Flemish Book of Hours, Flanders, ca. 1515

6. Folio 6: June – Les Très riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Paris um 1413

7. Folio 7: July – Golden Calendar of Albert Glockendon, Nuremberg, 1526

8. Folio 8: August – Breviarium Grimani, Bruges, ca. 1520

9. Folio 9: September – Black Prayer Book of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Bruges, ca. 1466–1476

10. Folio 10: October – Hours of Mary of Burgundy, Ghent, ca. 1467–1480

11. Folio 11: November – Simon Bening’s Flemish Calendar, Bruges, ca. 1540

12. Folio 12: December – Rohan Hours, France, ca. 1420

13. Folio 13: The Anatomical Zodiac Man – Les Très riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Paris, ca. 1413