Unfortunately, however, this proud 600-year-old work is in a pitiful condition. The prayer book of Marie d'Harcourt has long been considered a showpiece of the Dutch manuscript illumination of the Middle Ages. The book contains personalized prayers and verses, some of which were composed exclusively for the duchess in the local dialect of East Middle Dutch. The finished work is a magnificent volume, with 92 miniatures of outstanding artistic quality interspersed with the text, along with numerous historiated initials and decorated margins. He had the assistance of at least five artists, who created a multitude of colorful miniatures and drolleries to adorn the 482 vellum pages of the book. The monk and scribe Helmich de Lewe worked on the book at the Augustinian monastery of Marienborn, near Arnhem, and completed the project in 1415. So it is no surprise that the book of hours of Marie d'Harcourt, Duchess of Guelders, is one of the most beautiful medieval manuscripts held in the collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library). When a duchess commissioned something in the fifteenth century, those around her moved heaven and earth to guarantee the most exquisite product. Since 2015, conservators have been comprehensively examining and restoring the richly decorated medieval manuscript as part of a major research project involving the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, the Rathgen Forschungslabor and Radboud University in the Netherlands. The book of hours of Marie d'Harcourt is one of the most beautiful manuscripts held by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
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