Medieval Book of Hours

This is an original leaf from a manuscript, the Book of Hours, written in Latin on animal vellum. The leaf consists of 21 lines of text in black ink. A gold cord-like border outlined in black surrounds the text. The text is executed in a tiny and precise humanist script. Illuminated versal initials are on a square ground of gold, red, silver, and black.This leaf is from a supplementary text to a rare French manuscript from the 1520’s Hours Workshop and is done in precise imitation of the elegant earlier work.Book of Hours are personal prayer books of a devout and status-conscious society and are not only works of art, but cultural documents of the their time. They reveal a unique combination of sacred and secular imagery – made of the finest materials, by the best craftsmen, for a small audience, which could both appreciate and afford them.

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