Shepherds Purse: manuscript - Hours for Rouen Use

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The manuscript is a book of hours for the Rouen use, created ca. 1470 in France and currently held at the Pierpont Morgan Library (MS. M. 1093 fol. 57r). The scene is an Annunciation to the Shepherds (although the angel is cut off at the top of the scan here), and all four shepherds in the scene wear a Shepherds Purse that appears to be a very crudely draped piece of white cloth fastened in some way to a belt. To the extent that these are accurate representations, they show an interesting developmental stage between the use of an ordinary cloth as a carrier and the development of the crescent-shaped pouch. Note in particular the woman's pouch, which may have a loose corner of the underlying cloth folded over the top similarly to the flap on flapped pouches.

Men

Woman

References

Wieck, Roger S. 1997. Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art. George Braziller, Inc., New York fig. 50