Image and Meaning in the Floral Borders of the Hours of Catherine of Cleves

The Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves, produced in the Netherlands c. 1440-45, is one of the most beautiful and complex illuminated manuscripts of the late Middle Ages. The Master\u27s originality in his symbolic use of floral images in the borders of the manuscript is remarkable, yet little study has been made of this subject. The meaning of these floral images is, however, important to a complete understanding of the illumination of the manuscript. Using a set of criteria based on the tenets of the Devotie Moderna, a philosophy strong in the Netherlands at the time, I show that ten plants growing in northern Europe in the 15th century were used as symbolic images in the borders of the Hours of the Virgin and the Hours of the Cross, the first two sets of hours in the Cleves Hours. Further, these symbolic floral border images relate to and reinforce the meaning of the miniatures within the borders. Three tenets of the Devotie Moderna in particular are in accord with both the Master\u27s choice of plant forms and his use of them as symbols in the borders. These tenets are: 1) the value of study of the immediate physical world as a means of understanding God\u27s will, 2) the value of individual interpretation in gaining that understanding, and 3) the value of expressing that understanding of God\u27s will in terms of personal experience. In accord with these three tenets, the Master found significance in plants of the garden and roadside as well as those of religious use, used his own experience to interpret their forms as symbols, and depicted these images in forms that were exaggerated or changed to emphasize their impact as symbols. In the Hours of the Virgin and the Hours of the Cross, the Master used the rose, violet, pea, physalis, calendula, daffodil, strawberry, bindweed, nightshade, and a crucifer in borders that relate to scenes of the life of the Virgin and the Passion of Christ. Many of these images had not been seen in illumination before the Cleves Master. Those taken from church iconography were changed to emphasize their meaning in ways that had not been seen before. The Master\u27s breadth of choice and individual handling of these floral images often make these images difficult to recognize and to interpret today. A comparison of the images in the borders with plants known to have grown in the Netherlands of the Middle Ages shows that the Master chose his images from live models. A comparison of the plants he chose to those described in herbals and used symbolically in literature shows that the Master used plant images taken from his personal experience with a wide range of sources including textual as well as visual ones. A comparison of the plants to the Master\u27s changed images of them shows how he created images with still greater symbolic impact. Finally, a comparison of these changed images in the borders with the scenes of the miniatures shows that the border images reflect and support the symbolic meaning of the miniatures, adding significantly to the meaning of the total illumination of the manuscript