History of the Book of Hours

Through much of the middle ages, especially through the Renaissance, the Catholic Church was at the forefront of human literacy. This fact follows from the necessity of the clergy to be able to perform the required services dictated by the Church.

The amount of detail in this scene of the Annunciation was the careful work of one man. Such artwork would ultimately benefit solely the owner of the book.

To serve this literary need, the creation of manuscripts became a central activity of the Church. Indeed, many medieval abbeys contained scriptoria in which talented scribes and illuminators combined their efforts to create manuscripts of exquisite beauty and quality. These religious texts, however, found little circulation outside the church (Harthan 12).

The book of hours, the primary medieval religious manuscript available to laypersons, descends from the manuscripts used by members of the priesthood to conduct religious services. The primary texts in the medieval church for celebrating the liturgy were the missal and the breviary (12). The missal was used to celebrate mass, while the breviary was used in celebration of the divine office. It was celebration of the divine office (the prayers, services, and psalms read or sung for the hours, or canonical gradations of the day) which provided the genesis for a separate book of hours (12). Specifically, the inclusion of a service for the Virgin Mary in the tenth century coincided with the rise in Mary’s popularity and thus quickly became an appendix to most breviary of the time (13). In the thirteenth century this service for Mary became detached from the breviaries proper and formed the core of what became the book of hours (13). Thus, sparked by the devotion to Mary, the private texts of the church became available in some small part to laypersons.

Structure of a Book of Hours

While primarily comprised of the service of the Virgin Mary, the book of hours has a rich structure influenced heavily by that of the breviary. Much as the breviary is used in celebration of the divine office, which expresses the hours in terms of the passion of Christ, the book of hours celebrates the hours in terms of the life of the Virgin and the works of the Holy Spirit (14). For this celebration the book of hours contains other texts, such as psalms and prayers. An early twentieth century French scholar, Abbé Leroquais, codified the various segments that could comprise a book of hours (14). First, he labeled as essential texts those found in every book of hours. These consisted of the calendar, the "Little Office" or "Hours of the Virgin", the Penitential Psalms, the Litany, the Office of the Dead, and the Suffrages of the Saints (14). Leroquais considers secondary texts those evangelical passages describing the coming of Christ. These included John’s account of the passion, two popular prayers to the Virgin, the Obsecro te ("I implore thee") and the O intermerata ("O matchless one"), shorter alternate offices, the fifteen joys of the Virgin, and the seven requests to the Savior (14). Finally, all other texts are classified by Leroquais as accessory texts.

A page from the calendar of Kirby 1. This calendar would be used to mark holy days and indicate the sections of the book to be read.

These were often psalms or other prayers, but they appear with less frequency than essential and secondary texts (14). The arrangement of these texts, as well as their contents, varies between individual texts. The calendar, however, is found at the beginning of all book of hours, and establishes official church holidays and special dates in addition to helping the reader celebrate the hours according to the correct liturgical season (15).

An important note must be made concerning the structure of book of hours, namely, that these books were afforded great fluidity in their contents. Aside from the number and arrangement of the various texts, book of hours were freely decorated with outlandish imagery and made as ornate as the owner could afford. As these books were privately owned by lay persons, such symbols and images that would rarely be found in church owned manuscripts appeared in the pages of these books. Pages were illustrated with intricate images from mythology and nature.

Note that bottom of the page contains both Phillippa, the original owner of the manuscript , and her husband Jacob.

Owners of these books even went so far as to have images of themselves or symbols relating to them integrated into the book’s pages. Even more divergent from the Church’s manuscripts was the frequent use of the vernacular in book of hours, either in conjunction with or as a replacement of Latin. Thus, book of hours not only served a religious function, but also served to reflect on their owners and the culture in which they were created (20).

Social Context

Those who owned, or aspired to own, book of hours did so because such books were important, in varying ways, to their lives. For many, book of hours were used simply to aid in their private devotions. Indeed, worship was considered an important part of daily life for those who considered themselves religious, and thus, for those who were literate book of hours proved an essential devotional aid (32). Such people included numerous royalty and nobility, many of whose piety is a matter of record. In fact, such record is a result, at least in part, of the use and display of ornate book of hours, which demonstrated outwardly the owner’s piety. Beyond simple religious aides, these books were often regarded as precious by their owners and treated with great care. Due to their preciousness, book of hours were often linked to important people and occasions. Weddings, the most important occasion of all for most individuals, often proved reason enough to merit the commissioning of book of hours (34). Thus, book of hours played an important role in their owners’ lives.

Flemish Manuscripts

Due to a few simultaneous factors Flemish manuscripts of the fifteenth century experienced increasing popularity and production in Europe, especially those produced in the area surrounding Bruges and Ghent. One key factor was the great accomplishments in miniature art culminating in the beginning of the fifteenth century. Added to this was the support of Philip the Good of Burgundy, who bought hundreds of books for his private library. More importantly, Philip’s support of Flemish manuscripts was copied by many of his courtiers, which lead to increased generation of high quality manuscripts. A third factor was the increasing trend, starting in the later half of the century, to create very pleasing imagery in manuscripts (Smeyers 13). This factor lead to the use of finer and more brilliant materials, as well as greater attention to fine detail. This trend is thought to be a response to the vast increase in the number of print books coming out at the time. These factors taken together lead to an environment of great craftsmanship and support for manuscript manufacture, and thus demonstrate the reasons for the rise in Flemish manuscripts.