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Introduction to Books of Hours

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Streeter-Piccard Hours, use of Sarum: Flanders, 2nd quarter of the 15th C. Bryn Mawr College Special Collections

The book of hours was a prayer book used for private devotion that grew in popularity and demand in the late middle ages, demonstrating the growing interest of lay people in connecting directly to their religion. Developed from breviary texts, the basic elements of a book of hours include a calendar, the Hours of the Virgin, the Office of the Dead, various prayers, and suffrages in honor of the saints (1)

The book of hours places emphasis on individual and personal prayer, including prayers and devotions often expressly chosen for inclusion by the patron or a spiritual advisor to honor certain saints or to foster particular devotions (2)

In addition to the text, elaborate illuminations were another means through which books of hours involved their readers at a very intimate level. The images are often an integral part of the prayer itself, promoting further contemplation on the text through visualization (3). The interweaving of text and visual imagery as consciously directed towards the fostering of personal prayer. 

The structure and contents of these prayer books tell us a great deal about the beliefs, habits, desires, and fears of the people who used them. 

 

 

1. Muir, Bernard J. “The Early Insular Prayer Book Tradition and the Development of the Book of Hours." In The Art of the Book: Its Place in Medieval Worship, 21-66. Devon, UK: University of Exeter Press, 1998. 

2. Muir “The Early Insular Prayer Book”, pg. 12

3. Manion, Margaret M. "Women, Art and Devotion: Three French Fourteenth-Century Royal Prayer Books." In The Art of the Book: Its Place in Medieval Worship, 21-66. Devon, UK: University of Exeter Press, 1998.

Introduction to Books of Hours