THE BOOK OF HOURS
Books of Hours are private devotional books that were enormously popular with wealthy religious people in medieval times. They were typically structured around the hourly prayers observed in monasteries, and devout Catholics were expected stop eight times a day and recite the appropriate liturgy.
Despite their strongly religious origin, the books served more as status symbols and fashion accessories than paths to heaven, a fact testified to in the large number of copies that survive in exceptional condition.
The manuscript is incomplete, lacking its calendar and likely some images, its surviving illumination provides an excellent example of the art during this period. It is written in textura formata (a formal Gothic script found in elaborate manuscripts of the period), with the text in black ink and rubrics in red. Three artists’ hands are distinguishable.