Tutorial on Books of Hours Hore de Sancto Spiritu (c.1330?) Short Hours of the Holy Spirit - Introduction

The combination of the short Hours of the Cross and the Hours of the Holy Spirit did not occur in Books of Hours before the second half of the 14th century. By their form is it obvious that they were composed by the same authors around the same date.
The Hours of the Cross in the short form was not generally accepted in English monastic use until the later half of the century (Tolhurst, 1942, p.130). Before this do we in multiple devotional books find an ancient version of a special votive Office for the Holy Spirit of a liturgical form, composed around the famous 9th century Pentecost hymn Veni creator spiritus, with a single psalm at each hour, followed by a chapter with response, and a collect. Many of the elements from this prototype did survive elsewhere in later Books of Hours, after it was replaced by the short hours (see: Prototypes).

Since everything in the short Hours except the hymn is repeated at all Hours was the text often written in abbreviated form. One extremely short can be found in the Beauvais Hours (c.1430) where there is a large miniature followed by just one leaf (three pages of condensed text, f.127-128). Another extreme is a Book of Hours where everything is written out in full without any abbreviation. Both the Hours of the Cross and the Hours of the Holy Spirit are in that case each made up of a large miniature followed by 13 pages of written text (see: Paris Hours c.1465 f.129-143v).
At some point in the 15th century were the short hours broken up into canonical hours and written 'mixed' or 'intertwined' with the Hours of the Virgin. Matins with the relevant miniature was placed after Lauds of the Hours of the Virgin, and each following hour respectively following the collect to the Virgin. When a manuscript is misbound or dismembered are leaves with these intertwined texts of great importance because even smaller fragments of the hymns can easily be identified and tell us to which hour they belong, also when no rubric is seen on the leaf.

Hore de sancto Spiritu.

Matins (to be read after Lauds of the Virgin):
Hymnus.
Nobis sancti spiritus gratia sit data
de qua virgo virginum fuit obumbrata.
Cum per sanctum angelum fuit salutata
verbum caro factum est virgo fecundata.

Primam: Hymnus.
De maria virgine xpristus fuit natus
crucifixus, mortuus, atque tumulatus.
Resurgens discipulis fuit demonstratus.
Et ipsis cernentibus ignem accende.

Tertiam: Hymnus.
Suum sanctum spiritum deus delegavit
in die penthecostes ipsos confortavit
atque linguis igneis ipsos inflammavit
relinquere orphanos ipsos denegavit.

Sextam: Hymnus.
Septiformam gratiam tunc acceptaverunt.
Quare ydeomata cuncta cognoverunt
ad diversa climata mundi recesserunt.
Et fidem catholicam tunc predicaverunt.

Nonam: Hymnus.
Spiritus paraclitus fuit appellatus
domini dei caritas fons vivificatus spiritalis.
Unctio ignis inflammatus
Septiformis gracia carisma spiritus.

Vesperas: Hymnus.
Dextre dei digitus virtus spiritualis
nos defendat eruat ab omnibus malis
protegat et nutriat foveat subalis.
Ne nobis non noceat demon infernalis :

Completorium: Hymnus.
Spiritus paraclitus nos velit iuvare.
Gressus nostros regere et illuminare.
Ut cum deus venerit omnes iudicare.
Nos velit ad dexteram suam collocare.

Antiphona. Veni sancte spiritus reple tuorum corda fidelium
et tui amoris in eis ignem accende.
Versus. Emitte spiritum tuum et creabuntur.
[R.] Et renovabis faciem terre. Oremus.
Oratio.
Omnipotens sempiterne deus da nobis illam sancti spiritus graciam
quam discipulis tuis in die sancto penthecostes transmisisti.
Per xpristum dominum nostrum. Amen.

After Compline are the short Hours concluded with this so-called
Recommendatio.
Has horas canonicas cum devotione .
tibi sancte spiritus pia ratione .
dixi ut nos visites inspiracione .
ut vivamus iugiter celi regione.
(Benedicamus domino. Deo gratias.)