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==Notes==
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}

==References==

{{Empty section|date=December 2012}}


==Further reading==
==Further reading==

Revision as of 15:48, 1 July 2013

For the book by Rainer Maria Rilke, see The Book of Hours.
Book of hours, Paris c. 1410. Miniature of the Annunciation, with the start of Matins in the Little Office, the beginning of the texts after the calendar in the usual arrangement.
Opening from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, c. 1440, with Catherine kneeling before the Virgin and Child, surrounded by her family heraldry. Opposite is the start of Matins in the Little Office, illustrated by the Annunciation to Joachim, as the start of a long cycle of the Life of the Virgin.[1]

A book of hours is an illuminated, Christian devotional book that was popular among the Christians of Northern Europe during the Middle Ages.

A typical book of hours contains:

Sometimes included are the Marian prayers Obsecro te ("I beseech thee") and O Intemerata ("O undefiled one"), as well as devotions for use at Mass, meditations on the Passion of Christ, and other works.

This book format is an abridgement of the breviary, a liturgical book that contains the Liturgy of the Hours recited in monasteries. The book of hours was developed for lay people who wished to incorporate elements of monasticism into their devotional life. In spiritual practice, a person might read or recite from the prayers or excerpts from Psalms.

Tens of thousands of books of hours survive to the present day. Indeed, most of the extant medieval illuminated manuscripts are books of hours, although many of these have minimal decoration, and no illustrations at all. Some of the books made for wealthy patrons, however, were extremely lavish, boasting brightly coloured, full-page miniatures.

Books of hours were usually written in Latin (the Latin name for them is horae), although many were written (in whole or in part) in European vernacular, especially Dutch. An English-language book of hours is sometimes called a primer.

History

Even this level of decoration was more rich than that of most books, though less than the lavish amounts of illumination in luxury books, which are those most often seen reproduced.

The book of hours has its ultimate origin in the Psalter, which monks and nuns were required to recite. By the 12th century this had developed into the breviary, with weekly cycles of psalms, prayers, hymns, antiphons, and readings which changed with the liturgical season.[3] Eventually a selection of texts was produced in much shorter volumes and came to be called a book of hours.[4]

Many books of hours were made for women. There is some evidence that they were sometimes given as a wedding present from a husband to his bride.[5] Frequently they were passed down through the family, as recorded in wills.[5]

Although the most heavily illuminated books of hours were enormously expensive, a small book with little or no illumination was affordable much more widely, and increasingly so during the 15th century. The earliest surviving English example was apparently written for a laywoman living in or near Oxford in about 1240. It is smaller than a modern paperback but heavily illuminated with major initials, but no full-page miniatures. By the 15th century, there are also examples of servants owning their own Books of Hours. In a court case from 1500, a pauper woman is accused of stealing a domestic servant's prayerbook.[6]

Very rarely the books included prayers specifically composed for their owners, but more often the texts are adapted to their tastes or sex, including the inclusion of their names in prayers. Some include images depicting their owners, and some their coats of arms. These, together with the choice of saints commemorated in the calendar and suffrages, are the main clues for the identity of the first owner.

By the 15th century, various stationer's shops mass-produced books of hours in the Netherlands and France. By the end of the 15th century, the advance of printing made books more affordable and much of the emerging middle-class could afford to buy a printed book of hours.

Decorations

A full-page miniature of May, from a calendar cycle by Simon Bening, early 16th century.

As many books of hours are richly illuminated, they form an important record of life in the 15th and 16th centuries as well as the iconography of medieval Christianity. Some of them were also decorated with jewelled covers, portraits, and heraldic emblems. Some were bound as girdle books for easy carrying, though few of these or other medieval bindings have survived. Luxury books, like the Talbot Hours of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, may include a portrait of the owner, and in this case his wife, kneeling in adoration of the Virgin and Child as a form of donor portrait. In expensive books, miniature cycles showed the Life of the Virgin or the Passion of Christ in eight scenes decorating the eight Hours of the Virgin, and the Labours of the Months and signs of the zodiac decorating the calendar. Secular scenes of calendar cycles include many of the best known images from books of hours, and played an important role in the early history of landscape painting.

From the 14th century decorated borders round the edges of at least important pages were common in heavily illuminated books, including books of hours. At the beginning of the 15th century these were still usually based on foliage designs, and painted on a plain background, but by the second half of the century coloured or patterned backgrounds with images of all sorts of objects, were used in luxury books.

Second-hand books of hours were often modified for new owners, even among royalty. After defeating Richard III, Henry VII gave Richard's book of hours to his mother, who modified it to include her name. Heraldry was usually erased or over-painted by new owners. Many have handwritten annotations, personal additions and marginal notes but some new owners also commissioned new craftsmen to include more illustrations or texts. Sir Thomas Lewkenor of Trotton hired an illustrator to add details to what is now known as the Lewkenor Hours. Flyleaves of some surviving books include notes of household accounting or records of births and deaths, in the manner of later family bibles. Some owners had also collected autographs of notable visitors to their house. Books of hours were often the only book in a house, and were commonly used to teach children to read, sometimes having a page with the alphabet to assist this.

Towards the end of the 15th century, printers produced books of hours with woodcut illustrations. Stationers could mass-produce manuscript books on vellum with only plain artwork and later "personalize" the volumes.

The luxury book of hours

The lavish illusionistic borders of this Flemish book of hours from the late 1470s are typical of luxury books of this period, which were now often decorated on every page. The butterfly wing cutting into the text area is an example of playing with visual conventions, typical of the period.
(Among the plants are the Veronica, Vinca, Viola tricolor, Bellis perennis, and Chelidonium majus. The butterfly is Aglais urticae. The Latin text is a devotion to Saint Christopher).

In the 14th century the book of hours overtook the psalter as the most common vehicle for lavish illumination. This partly reflected the increasing dominance of illumination both commissioned and executed by laymen rather than monastic clergy. From the late 14th century a number of bibliophile royal figures began to collect luxury illuminated manuscripts for their decorations, a fashion that spread across Europe from the Valois courts of France and the Burgundy, as well as Prague under Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and later Wenceslaus. A generation later, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy was the most important collector of manuscripts, with several of his circle also collecting.[7] It was during this period that the Flemish cities overtook Paris as the leading force in illumination, a position they retained until the terminal decline of the illuminated manuscript in the early 16th century.

The most famous collector of all, the French prince John, Duke of Berry (1340–1416) owned several books of hours, some of which survive, including the most celebrated of all, the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. This was begun around 1410 by the Limbourg brothers, although left incomplete by them and decoration continued over several decades by other artists and owners. The same was true of the Turin-Milan Hours, which also passed through Berry's ownership.

By the mid-15th century a much wider group of nobility and rich businesspeople were able to commission highly decorated, often small, books of hours. With the arrival of printing the market contracted sharply, and by 1500 the finest quality books were once again being produced only for royal or very grand collectors. One of the last major illuminated book of hours was the Farnese Hours completed for the Roman Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1546 by Giulio Clovio, who was also the last major manuscript illuminator.

Books of hours in archives and museums

See Category:Illuminated books of Hours

In Europe

  • Nuremberg-Book of hours, around 1296 : Stadtsbibliothek Nuremberg, Ms. Solger 4.4°
  • Breviarium Grimani, miniatures of Alexander Bening (father of Simon): Venice (Marciana Library)
  • Breviarium Mayer van den Bergh: Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh
  • The Golfbook, around 1540, miniatures of Simon Bening: London, British Library, Add. Ms. 24098
  • Sforza Hours: London, British Library, Add. Ms. 34294
  • Bedford Hours: London, British Library, Add. Ms. 18850
  • Book of hours of Beatrijs van Assendelft: Utrecht, Museum 'Catharijneconvent'
  • Hennessy-book of hours also 'Heures de Notre Dame', on perkament, 16th century (after 1530): Brussels, 'Royal Library of Belgium', Ms. II 158
  • Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, around 1411-1416: Musée Condé, Chantilly (France), Ms. 65
  • Les heures de Croy: Vienna, National Library, codex 1858
  • Turin-Milan Hours: Turin City Museum of Ancient Art, Ms. Inv. 47
  • Tres belles heures du Duc de Berry: Brussels, Royal Library of Belgium, 11060-11061
  • Petites heures du Duc de Berry: Paris, Royal Library, lat. 18014
  • Les très belles heures de Notre-Dame du Duc de Berry: Paris, Biblothèque nationale, nouv. acq. lat. 3093
  • Das Berliner Stundenbuch der Maria von Burgund und Kaiser Maximilians, 15th century: Berlin, Preuss. Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, 78 B 12
  • Book of hour of 'Joos van Wassenaar', 1480-1490: Rotthalmünster, Coll. Tenschert
  • Book of hours, around 1500: Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Ms. 294
  • Book of hours, around 1530, miniatures of Simon Bening: Munchen, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 23638
  • Albrecht of Brandenburg Book of hours, around 1525, Simon Bening and others: Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Hermetica Philosophica, Ms. Astor, A 24/2
  • La Flora book of hours, before 1489, with 22 fullpages-miniatures of Simon Marmion: Napoli, Biblioteca Nazionale
  • Huth Hours, around 1480 with 24 fullpages-miniatures and 74 smaller ones of Simon Marmion: London, British Library
  • The Croy-Arenberg book of hours, Flanders, 1505-1515 (206 f°): private collection
  • Book of Hours (Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, Cod. 470)
  • Hours of Gian Galeazzo Visconti

In the United States

  • Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, miniatures of 'the Limburg Brothers': New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters
  • Book of hours 'Margreth of Beaujeu' Arras or Saint-Omer (France), second quarter of the 14th century: New York, The Morgan Library & Museum, M. 754
  • Book of hours, Flanders, early 14th century: Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, W 82
  • The also called 'Black Book of Hours': New York, The Morgan Library & Museum, Ms. 493
  • Hours of Catherine of Cleves, 15th century (property of 'Katharina van Kleef'): New York, The Morgan Library & Museum
  • Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, 1325-1328: New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters
  • Book of hours 'Henry VIII', with miniatures by Jean Poyer: New York, The Morgan Library & Museum

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Books of Hours.

Notes

  1. ^ Plummer, plates 1-2
  2. ^ Danish Royal Library
  3. ^ Eamon Duffy, "A Very Personal Possession: Eamon Duffy Tells How a Careful Study of Surviving Books of Hours Can Tell Us Much About the Spiritual and Temporal Life of Their Owners and Much More Besides." History Today 56.11 (Nov 2006): 12(7).
  4. ^ John Harthan "The Book of Hours: With a Historical Survey and Commentary by John Harthan.: New York: Crowell, 1977.
  5. ^ a b John Harthan
  6. ^ Eamon Duffy
  7. ^ Thomas, 8-9

Further reading

  • Roger S. WIECK, The book of hours in Medieval Art and Life, Sotheby's Publications, London, 1988, 230 p.
  • Roger S. Wieck, Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life, New York: George Braziller, 1988, 230 p.
  • Eleanor SIMMONS, Les Heures de Nuremberg, Les Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1994, 122 p.
  • Rob DUCKERS en Pieter ROELOFS, The Limbourg Brothers - Nijmegen Masters at the French Court 1400-1416, Ludion, Ghent, 2005, 447 p.
  • Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983.
  • Otto Pächt, Book Illumination in the Middle Ages (trans fr German), 1986, Harvey Miller Publishers, London, ISBN 0-19-921060-8

Individual works:

  • The Hours of Mary of Burgundy (facsimile edition, Harvey Miller, 1995) ISBN 1-872501-87-7
  • Gregory T. Clark, The Spitz Master: A Parisian Book of Hours. Los Angeles: Getty, 2003.
  • Meiss, Millard, and Edith W. Kirsch. The Visconti Hours. New York: George Braziller, 1972.
  • Meiss, Millard, and Elizabeth H. Beatson. The Belles Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry. New York: George Braziller, 1974.
  • Meiss, Millard, and Marcel Thomas. The Rohan Master: A Book of Hours. Trans. Katharine W. Carson. New York: George Braziller, 1973.
  • Jean Porcher. The Rohan Book of Hours: With an Introduction and Notes by Jean Porcher. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959.
General information:
  • "A Masterpiece Reconstructed: The Hours of Louis XII". Prints & Books. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  • Sacred Image and Illusion in Late Flemish Manuscripts, Robert G. Calkins, Cornell University
  • Abebooks, Collecting Books of Hours with a varied selection of examples.
  • 541 examples from the Digital Scriptorium
  • Book of Hours Tutorial, Les Enluminures and The Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.1093
  • Blog: PECIA/ Le manuscrit médiéval ~ The medieval manuscript
  • Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF)
Full "turn the pages" online individual manuscripts:
The texts:
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