Book of Hours of Simon de Varie

The Book of Hours of Simon de Varie (or the Varie Hours) is a French illuminated manuscript book of hours commissioned by the court official Simon de Varie, with miniatures attributed to at least four artists; hand A who may have been a workshop member of the Bedford Master, the anonymous illustrators known as the Master of Jean Rolin II,^[1] the Dunois Master (hand C) and the French miniaturist Jean Fouquet. It was completed in 1455 and consists of 49 large miniatures and dozens of decorative vignettes and painted initials, which total over 80 decorations.^[2] Fouquet is known to have contributed six full leaf illuminations, including a masterwork Donor and Virgin diptych. A number of saints appear - Saint Simon (de Varie's patron saint) is placed as usual alongside Saint Jude (folio 41); other pages feature saints Bernard of Menthon, James the Greater and Guillaume de Bourges.^[3]

The book was divided into 3 volumes^[4] by its 17th century owner Philippe de Béthune. Two are currently housed at National Library of the Netherlands, in The Hague and were acquired in 1816 and 1890.^[5] The third was long thought to be lost, but resurfaced in 1983 when it was rediscovered by art historian and medievalist James Marrow in the possession of an antiquarian bookseller in San Francisco. That volume contains 97 leaves, and is today in the Getty Center in Los Angeles.^[5][6]

The book is unusually ornate and beautiful,^[7] and measures 11.7 cm x 8.5 cm. The two Hague volumes have identical armorial bindings added by their 17th-century owner Philippe de Béthune (1561–1649).^[8] Its first major art historical treatment was published in 1902 by Paul Durrieu.