It is most likely that the manuscript Kirby 1 was commissioned by Jacob Donche as a wedding gift for his new wife, Phillipa Utenhove around the year 1480 (Dutschke, 88). This naturally begs the question of why a book of hours would have been an appropriate gift for Jacob to give to his bride. Indeed, an ornate and beautiful book such as Kirby 1 is a worthy present in itself. However, the manuscript was more than just a simple offering. It was a book of religious content that was given for a religiously binding ceremony, and as such, it was designed to carry with it a message. Jacob, having commissioned the book, had some control over what material went into it. Though the text itself was a specific set of devotions (the Hours of the Virgin), Jacob did have a say in what images the illuminator painted. What ideas, then, did he want to communicate to Phillipa when she looked at these pictures? Being a book of hours, Phillipa would have used the manuscript as an aid in her daily devotions. Thus, she would be constantly reminded of Jacob’s message. More than a gift, Kirby 1 was a powerful tool that allowed Jacob to impart certain ideas to his new bride, Phillipa.

In order to shed some light upon what ideas Jacob wanted to communicate, Kirby 1 can be compared to the more well known and well documented Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters, MS 54.1.2) (Holladay, 585). This book of hours is similar in many respects to Kirby 1. King Charles IV of France commissioned this manuscript for his third wife Jeanne d’Evreux on the occasion of their wedding, just as Jacob commissioned Kirby 1 for his wedding to Phillipa (Holladay, 585). As such, the King, like Jacob, had control over the illustrations that appeared in the manuscript . Thus, like Phillipa, Jeanne d’Evreux would have understood a message when she saw the images in her Hours.

Charles intended for the d’Evreux Hours to be more than just a gift. Through its images, it also symbolized the religious binding of Jeanne to Charles and his royal dynasty (Holladay, 604). The most interesting image cycle in the manuscript is the one accompanying the hours of Saint Louis. Louis IX, King of France from 1226 to 1270 and great grandfather to both Jeanne and Charles, was renowned for his piety (Holladay, 588). The scenes in his section of the Hours depict him performing several acts of charity, such as feeding lepers and washing the feet of a poor man. Two images of Jeanne herself appear in the cycle. In one, she is shown kneeling in prayer before the likeness of the saint-king Louis. The final image in the cycle shows her with other descendants of Louis paying homage to him at his funeral (Holladay, 589). These two images would have sent Jeanne a very clear message. The scene of her kneeling before Louis symbolizes her connection with the Saint, both as his descendant and as the new Queen of his dynasty. The image of Jeanne at the funeral of Louis with his other descendants established her as having a central part in the royal family (Holladay, 596). The fact that these images appear in a book of religious content, which was received on the occasion of a religiously binding ceremony, makes this connection between Jeanne and the Capet dynasty a particularly deep and spiritual one.

Moreover, Charles imparted a sense of responsibility to continue the lineage of Saint Louis unto Jeanne through her Hours. With his two wives before, Charles had not produced a male heir, and so this became one of Jeanne’s duties as queen (Holladay, 603).

Jacob and Philippa kneeling before the cross.

Thus, Charles had images such as flowers, rabbits, and other symbols of fertility appear in the marginalia of the book, so Jeanne could use her Hours to pray for a son (Holladay, 604). The images in the d’Evreux Hours gave Jeanne not only a sense that she was spiritually bound to a family, but also that it was her duty to ensure its future.

While Jacob Donche did not have the dynastic concerns of Charles IV, he did impart to Phillipa through the images in Kirby 1 a sense of a spiritual binding. The image cycle of Kirby 1 is an infancy cycle (Weitzmann, 67) that spans the Annunciation through the Pieta (Dutschke and Rouse, 87), which commonly appear in book of hours. Hence, it does not provide the insight that the unique cycle in the d’Evreux hours does.

Jacob and Philippa before St. Veronica (holding cloth).

Rather, the bulk of Jacob’s message appears in the many initials or in the marginalia of the manuscript . In much the same way Jeanne’s image appears in her Hours, the figures of the patron Jacob and his wife appear in the initials of Kirby 1. In one initial, Jacob and Phillipa appear kneeling in a scene of the Crucifixion. In another, they are found before St. Veronica, who is holding her cloth. In two more interesting initials, the couple appear praying below James, patron saint of Jacob, in one, and below Phillip, patron saint of Phillipa in the other (Dutschke and Rouse, 88). The fact that the two appear as a unit under their respective Patron saints implies a religious bond between the two. Moreover, it establishes a family connection between the two, since patron saints are associated with families.

Jacob and Philippa depicted kneeling before St. Phillip.

An even more direct symbol of unity is shown by the appearance of Jacob and Phillipa’s coats of arms in the manuscript . The two arms are shown individually on separate pages. However, a third coat of arms, which is a meld of both Jacob’s and Phillipa’s personal arms is also shown in the manuscript (Dutschke and Rouse, 88). Recall that Phillipa would have used this book every day for her devotions so this image served as a constant reminder of the bond between the two. Thus, this book as a wedding gift symbolizes the religious binding between Jacob and Phillipa.

The d’Evreux hours and Kirby 1 were more than simple wedding gifts. Rather, they were meant to symbolize through their images the very essence of the wedding ceremony.

Jacob and Philippa's coats of arms melded together inside the "D."

The d’Everaux Hours, through its unique image cycle, conveyed a sense of royal lineage and responsibility unto Jeanne. When using the book, she was reminded of the idea that she was connected to the great Saint-King Louis IX. Kirby 1, with its interesting use if initials, more directly imparted a sense of unity and marital bonding unto Phillipa. Hence, these two book of hours prove to have been more than an appropriate wedding gift, for their images metaphorically represent the ceremony for which they were given.