The Book of Hours was a highly personalized prayer book that gained great popularity in the late middle ages in Europe. While thousands of copies were made by artisans in a range of styles to fit many pocketbooks, the reasons for commissioning this type of book could vary from individual to individual. Five different prayerbooks have been identified as representing different interpretations of this type of prayerbook: the Book of Hours as an innovation, a regional work, a personal discipline, a work of art, and as a showcase for modern technology. The Books of Hours originally belonging to Suzanna of Oxford (the de Brailes Hours), Yolande of Soissons, Jeanne d'Evreaux, the Duc du Berry, and Maximilian I of Austria illustrate how Books of Hours served varied purposes and fulfilled different needs in the lives of Europeans in the late Medieval period.

During the Middle Ages, ever increasing segments of European society had the opportunity to learn to read and the books laymen were most likely to own were religious. The Church supported and encouraged literacy among the laity so all could read the prayers from books instead of relying solely on rote memory.⁽¹⁾ Before the mid-Thirteenth Century, the Psalter contained most of the prayers a non-clergyman would say. This collection of the psalms had gradually expanded into a bulky volume that included hymns, prayers, the narrative of the passion, and a separate section devoted to the Virgin Mary. Popular religious piety in the middle ages centered largely on devotions to the Virgin and books containing these types of prayer came to be in great demand. The development of the Book of Hours was a natural outgrowth of this trend with its creation as an entire volume devoted entirely to this cycle of prayers. This new type of book spread rapidly and quickly became a best seller.⁽²⁾

Unlike the grandly illustrated liturgical books of the twelfth century that were considered ceremonial objects in common or community ownership, Books of Hours were designed to be carried about and were intended for frequent consultation. The prayers contained within the Book of Hours were to be spoken during eight different times of the day in a shorter version of the prayers read by monks and nuns.⁽³⁾ Usually written in a large, clear script and personalized with a cycles of prayers to both the Virgin and the owner's favorite saint, the Book of Hours became part of the daily life of its medieval reader. Families often used these works to record births, deaths, marriages, and other ceremonial occasions much as people in the Nineteenth Century utilized family Bibles. In many instances, the Book of Hours would have also served as a primer. Its many illustrations would have acted as an aid to learning words and would have helped to convey the narrative of the text.⁽⁴⁾

Because of the highly personalized nature of the Book of Hours, no two works are alike. The Hours of the Virgin was not an official church service so the makers of the work could add what was requested by the customer rather than follow the dictates of church authority. Not only could the Book of Hours be individualized according to the owner's taste, but many of these prayerbooks could vary according to the local custom or "use" of words in the prayer sequence. Large cities and even very small towns had their own liturgical dialect and these subtle differences were reflected in the wordings of the prayers themselves.⁽⁵⁾ Even the order of the prayers was left to the commissioner and the planner of the work. Unlike a breviary, the order of the liturgy used by the regular and secular clergy that was arranged according to the church year, the topics of the Book of Hours are independent of any chronology. With the exception of the calendar at the beginning of the text, the order of the various parts was never fixed, but the contents were usually consistent. (Dictionary of the Middle Ages, "The Book of Hours, p. 326.)

A "typical" Book of Hours featured readings from the four Gospels, the Hours of the Virgin, the Hours of the Cross, the Hours of the Holy Ghost, the Penitential Psalms, the Office of the Dead, and the Suffrages of the Saints.⁽⁶⁾ Patrons then often added prayer cycles, illustrations, and supplications to their favorite saints depending on their desired end. Local saints might be honored as in the Hours of Yolande of Soissons or the guidance of a sainted forbear might be invoked as in the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreaux.

Many books of hours were constructed according to the "imposed sheet method." Large sheets of vellum were planned, ruled, and written on in such a manner that when they were folded to produce eight folios with sixteen sides, the text was lined up in proper order. This method of construction is very complicated for the scribe and manufacturer of the book because the text both skips around in a non-sequential manner and is upside down on one half side of the sheet in relation to the other. The pages would only have to be planned once because subsequent copies could be written across one half of the sheet by scribes exactly as they appeared in the original. This technique was widely utilized by the fifteenth century because despite its complicated form, it lent itself easily to mass production.⁽⁷⁾

Not all Books of Hours were illustrated, but contemporary manuscript creators understood the importance of visual aids to understanding religious texts. The earliest decorations were limited mostly to enlarged and decorated initial letters. Flowers and other decorations spread from these capitals to the margins and borders of the texts and later grew to full page illustrations. Some scenes and picture types were commonplace in the Books of hours. In the calendar section, two oft-featured themes were the Labors of the Months and signs from the Zodiac. The Gospels were usually illustrated with the symbols representative of the four evangelists: the man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. Within the Hours of the Virgin, miniatures often depicted scenes from the Nativity and infancy of Christ. Pictures featuring death, purgatory, paradise, and hell were also prevalent in most medieval books of hours. In an era of high mortality, all would have been familiar with the specter of death, pain, and suffering. Many from the late medieval era believed the daily recital of the Office of the Dead, included in most Books of Hours, was a protection against dying suddenly and unprepared.⁽⁸⁾

The popularity of Books of Hours also suggests the importance of private devotional life and contemplation in the personal lives of medieval laity, especially in women.⁽⁹⁾ The original owners of the majority of extant Books of Hours were women and many had initiated the commission of these private books that were used as a means of spiritual discipline. For centuries Medieval clergy exhorted all Christians to imitate Christ and the saints in the privacy of their soul in order to transform the heart and mind from within. This internalization of piety was especially sought in women who, it was hoped, could become the model of Christian ideals through contemplation and prayer and inspire their fellow men to emulate their attainments. Thus the recitation of prayers to the Virgin in solitude at the beginning of the day was encouraged among all and these new Books of Hours were intended to guide the literate or semi-literate woman in devotions meant to cultivate a peaceful, inner life.⁽¹⁰⁾
 

The first known book of hours was created in the 1240s in Oxford, England by the workshop of William de Brailes. Other works, namely several Psalters, created earlier in that century in Oxford had included the Hours of the Virgin, but this was the first known book devoted solely to this cycle. The text of the routine was deliberately combined with religious imagery to direct the semi-literate through their prayers. This first book of hours was created for an Oxford woman known only as Susannah. De Brailes included her likeness four times within the illustrations of this manuscript. In each image, she appears alone kneeling as in prayer and is featured in the same dress. Scholars have agreed that at the time of her commission, De Brailes' patroness was non-aristocratic and unmarried, two characteristics uncommon to any of the other Books of Hours studied for this project. (Donovan, de Brailes Hours, p. 24)

The de Brailes Book of Hours is comparatively small and was designed to be regularly read and carried around. Its grubby and well worn state indicates that the owner often referred to the book and may have worn it on her person. The manuscript measures only 150 mm by 123 mm (7 inches by 6 inches) and is a relatively slim book. A reader could easily refer to a specific portion of the devotions because the script itself is relatively large and the layout of the text and illustrations are simple.⁽¹¹⁾

While scholars have confidently identified the de Brailes Hours as the first of its kind or at least the earliest surviving version of a Book of Hours, they are not as forthcoming with ideas as to how the concept of this type of prayerbook spread throughout England and onto the Continent. With the increasing popularity of the Cult of the Virgin and the bulkiness of the Psalters in which these prayers were originally bound, it would have only taken a short time for a clever scribe, stationer, or bookbinder to have realized the enormous potential in manufacturing this type of prayerbook. Perhaps the de Brailes book should be seen as the first example of a work whose time had come. Within a few years of the creation of this text, workshops in France and Flanders were creating similar prayerbooks.
 

The Hours of Yolande of Soissons, now in the J Pierpoint Morgan Library (M 729), was created within twenty-five years of the de Brailes hours in the last quarter of the Thirteenth Century. Its combination of both the Psalter and the Hours of the Virgin is an indicator of the work's place in the development of a separate Book of Hours. While there is no formal connection between this work and the earlier de Brailes manuscript,⁽¹²⁾ the cultural exchange between Northern France and Norman England (albeit often one-sided) may have facilitated the spread of separate Books of Hours. Yolande of Soissons lived in the Amiens region of Northern France both before and after her marriage to a nobleman of Picardy and may have become aware of this new type of book through trans-Channel influences. Yolande's well-worn prayerbook is a little larger than other Books of Hours from this early era measuring 137 mm by 179 mm and containing 437 numbered folios.

Yolande of Soissons⁽¹³⁾ commissioned work on a personal Book of Hours written in both Latin and Old French sometimes in the last three decades of the Thirteenth Century. The illuminations featured in the work were thought to have been that of Parisian illustrator "Master Honoré," but recent scholarship has refuted this supposition proposing instead that the work emerged from an as-yet unidentified workshop in Northern France, possible from the Amiens region.⁽¹⁴⁾ Unlike the other four Books of Hours focused on in this study, Yolande of Soisson's prayer book is an intensely regional work. Not only do the illustrations feature scenes of landscapes and vegetation exclusive to the Amiens region, but Yolande chose to honor several local saints including Firmin, the first bishop of Amiens and the Martyrs of Amiens. She also included in her commission the prayers written by Gauthier, the prior of the monastery of Vic-sur-Aisner located near Soissons.⁽¹⁵⁾ Because this manuscript is not as well documented as some other Books of Hours, the possible motivations behind her purchasing this type of Book of Hour are unknown. She may have been praying for the prosperity of her region of Northern France, the fruitful yields of the laborers on her family's estates, and, ultimately, the success of her husband's seigneurship. Yolande of Soisson's marriage to a nobleman in the same vicinity as the Soisson lands indicates the strength of her ties to that area and her commitment to honoring the local saints during her devotions to the Blessed Mother of Christ.

While all Books of Hours contained devotions to the Virgin Mary, some people intended that the discipline of prayer be a means of instruction. Many prayer books created for members of the French royal house, such as that for Jeanne d'Evreaux, Queen of Charles IV, featured the life and miracles of Saint Louis who in life had been King Louis IX of France. These invocations both exalted this famous king and reiterated the prayer-givers' connections with their sainted ancestor. They were also utilized as a method of training, a kind of manual to condition her behavior so that Jeanne d'Evreaux would be worthy of bearing sons. Within the illustrations of the prayers to Saint Louis, the young queen is pictured paying homage to Saint Louis in a visual reminder, even an entreaty, to allow the grace of the saint to transform Jeanne's very being. The charitable acts of her ancestor Louis IX were presented as a model for both a Christian and a reigning monarch. Indeed as queen, Jeanne d'Evreaux's outward manifestations of piety such as acts of charity and mercy would signify her worthiness as the wife and mother of Kings of France.⁽¹⁶⁾

Because women could not rule France under Salic Law, the birth of a healthy male heir was the tantamount goal of any French dynasty. Charles IV was directly appealing to the Almighty as he was the last of the Capetians and had no surviving sons despite two marriages. Jeanne d'Evreaux's husband may have reasoned that if she modeled her behavior after her sainted forbear, she would enhance herself in God's favor and produce a son. This desire is further supported by the presence of babies, rabbits, and other signs of fertility throughout the text of the manuscript illustrated by artist Jean Pucelle.⁽¹⁷⁾ Despite the well handled condition of Jeanne d'Evreaux's Hours, Jeanne bore no sons. The royal couple had three daughters, the last born two months after Charles V's death, in January 1328, heralding the end of the Capetian line of kings. Queen Jeanne cherished her tiny prayerbook and it remained in her possession during her long widowhood until her death in 1370.⁽¹⁸⁾ This book of hours, meant as a model for the instruction of inward and outward piety, survives as a tangible reminder of the aspirations of kings.
 

One of the most renown medieval manuscripts is the Tres Riches Heures⁽¹⁹⁾ of Jean, Duc du Berry.⁽²⁰⁾ Known for its sumptuous illustrations by the Limbourg brothers, the Hours is considered a masterpiece of the illuminator's craft. The Tres Riches Heures is also considered a landmark work by many outside the field of rare books; its images have been studied by art, fashion, and social historians for insight into life in late Medieval France. This book is one of only 300 manuscripts, fifteen of which were Books of Hours, commissioned by the Duc du Berry, the cultured younger brother of King Charles V of France. Scholars have agreed that work was begun on this manuscript sometime between 1405 and 1408, but because of the lavishness of the illustrations, the work was very slow.⁽²¹⁾ Berry, unfortunately, never saw the completed work because he died in June 1416 before it was finished.

The most renown feature of the Tres Riches Heures manuscript are the illustrations for the calendars. Two whole pages are devoted to each month including a full page depictions of everyday life and work for both nobles and peasants in north central France. A thirteenth table and picture combination features an anatomical and zodiacal man in an unusual illustration said to be inspired from a Provençal manuscript of a Jewish medical text. This arresting graphic was painted by one of the Limbourg brothers.⁽²²⁾ Some art historians mark the calendar illustrations as the first attempt at modern landscape art because of the Limbourg's pictures' embodiment of a concrete, naturalistic conception of the seasons.⁽²³⁾

In 1416, the same year of the Duc du Berry's death, all three Limbourg brothers mysteriously died. The incomplete manuscript was passed from Berry to his daughter Bonne and to her descendants in the House of Savoy, but by the end of the fifteenth century, the work was again in the possession of the King of France. While the Hours were in Paris, the artist Jean Columbe was commissioned to complete the interrupted work of the Limbourgs. In the twilight years of majestic illuminated manuscripts, the owners of the Tres Riches Heures understood that they possessed a work of unique beauty and quality. The large dimensions of the manuscript, made it an all but impossible book to carry to prayer. The Tres Riches Heures, instead, graced the library stand and for the following centuries remained undamaged by repeated use. The Book of Hours had become a treasure.
 

The Book of Hours of Maximilian I of Austria, commissioned in 1508, the year he was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor at Trent, features the artwork of two of the most famous illustrators of Reformation-era Europe: Louis Cranach and Albrecht Dürer. The prayerbook's format indicates some of the transition of monumental religious books from handwritten to printed works. The text of the prayers, many of which had been written and organized by Maximilian himself, was printed on vellum by a movable type printing press. All of the illustrations, however, were drawn by hand in ink.

Scholars believe that Maximilian wanted to create a modern, German version of the illuminated manuscripts that could compare with and even rival the Medieval masterpieces from his wife Mary of Burgundy's homeland.⁽²⁴⁾ By creating and reproducing his Book of Hours in this format, Maximilian wanted to show the world how the new German-invented technology of the printing press could create a work of beauty and piety. The emperor honored the Hapsburg dynasty by basing the style and format of the work on a prayerbook that had belonged to his father, Emperor Friedrich III. Maximilian had planned for ten versions of his prayer book to be printed with illustrations added from colored woodcuts, but he died before his vision could be fulfilled. The completed prototype is the only version he was able to approve. (The Book of Hours of Maximilian the First, p. 325)

While one of Maximilian's intentions in commissioning this work was to showcase German technological abilities, his motivations were also from sincere religious piety. During his lifetime, he had personally compiled many handwritten prayerbooks for his own use and even considered becoming Pope during the serious illness of Pope Julius II in 1511. The Emperor Maximilian was also in favor of publishing prayerbooks and other religious texts in the vernacular so they would be accessible to all.⁽²⁵⁾ Ironically, this change from Latin was also advocated by Martin Luther who posted his Ninety Five Theses in Wittenberg two years before the Most Catholic Emperor Maximilian died in 1519. Indeed the Reformation movement, spurred in part by Luther's preachings, played a significant role in the eroding of the popularity of Books of Hours over the coming century.
 

The invention of the printing press initially disseminated the Book of Hours as a popular prayer book even further,⁽²⁶⁾ but despite efforts by some individuals such as the Emperor Maximilian, printed versions were not as splendid as the handcrafted artifact nor were they as treasured.⁽²⁷⁾ Printing had also facilitated the spread of Bibles and other religious texts written in the vernacular. These factors, combined with increased literacy and the habit of reading religious works, may have laid the foundation for new outlets of piety that, ironically, helped end the golden era of the Book of Hours. New ideas, generated in part by Reformation advocates, placed greater emphasis on the individual's relationship with God and lessened the need to appeal through a sainted intermediary. The Cult of the Virgin, a mainstay of the Medieval era, was also no longer as strong or as popular, hence, a reduction in demand for Books of Hours.⁽²⁸⁾ While popular sentiment began to look beyond Books of Hours, the Reformation all but destroyed any remaining demand in countries where Reformists' ideas took hold.

Devotion to the Virgin continued to an extent in Catholic countries, but in the areas of Northern Europe where some of the most exquisite versions of illuminated manuscripts had been created, Protestant reformers called for different expressions of religious piety. In England, many books of hours were destroyed following Edward VI's injunction in 1549 for the confiscation of "popish rituals" and the books that were associated with them. Thousands of Books of Hours were burned in reaction with the result that only about ten have survived to the modern era.⁽²⁹⁾ Whether because of government injunctions or waning interest, by the middle of the Sixteenth Century, the era of the Book of Hours had come to an end.

The Book of Hours was such a popular form of prayerbook in the Medieval era that no one is sure how many thousands were created. Each of these works are unique because they were written and illustrated according to the whims, desires, and personal needs of the commissioner. While varying degrees of personal piety may have spurred the original owners of the five works studied herein to commission a Book of Hours, the resulting works each represent different aspirations. The motivations, however, can only be inferred. Susannah of Oxford may never have known that her Book of Hours was among the first, if not the first of its kind, but its very presence indicates the importance of daily devotion to the Virgin. Yolande of Soissons probably wanted to honor her native region in her prayers, yet it is entirely possible that the crafters of her prayerbook knew no models other than those in the Amiens region. Jeanne d'Evreaux's husband understandably wanted a son and he desired that his wife honor the Virgin Mother so that Jeanne too could bear blessed fruit. As a patron of the arts, the Duc du Berry's acquisition of a beautiful prayerbook would have given him both spiritual and visual joy. Because Berry had the good fortune to commission what would become one of the celebrated manuscripts of all time, countless generations who can view the images will be able to achieve these same feelings. But of all the works discussed in this paper, the Emperor Maximilian's prayerbook seems to best encompass the different archetypes of Books of Hours. Maximilian believed that his illustrated prayerbook would channel and discipline his religious piety, provide an artistic showcase for German technology, and demonstrate to the world the glories of his empire. Whatever original desires of the patron, these examples show how Books of Hours were a means of innovation, expressing regional or national pride, an example of royal instruction, works of art, technological marvel, or combinations of all of these.
 

1. Phillip Aries and George Duby, eds., A History of Private Life: Revelations of the Medieval World. (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 1988), p. 530.

2. Books of Hours were created throughout Europe, but some locations were famous for their prayerbooks. Flanders and Northern France were particularly noted for their manuscript creations, but France's almost continuous warfare with England in the Fifteenth Century often disrupted production. The Dutch were known for their botanical illustrations in their illuminated manuscripts, but most that survive indicate that the predominate number of these works were written in the vernacular and would not have been exported far out of the area. Italian artistry was also sought, but few Books of Hours were created in Germany, Spain, or Portugal. Dynastic ties and Hapsburg influence may have caused many in these last three countries to purchase Flemish manuscripts instead. Later historical events such as the wholesale destruction of Books of Hours by zealous Protestants in England would have reduced the number of texts that survived. (Christopher De Hamel, History of Illuminated Manuscripts. [London: Phaidon Press, Intl., 1994], p. 173.)

3. The twenty-four hour day was divided into eight equal parts with each portion designated by an "hour." A short private service known as an office was set for the observance of that hour and most of these offices were given the name of an hour from Classical counting. Certain stories or episodes from the Nativity of Christ were linked to each hour and office and at that time of prayer, the corresponding narrative was pictured in the book. The hour of midnight was the time for the office of Matins--associated with the Annunciation. The other hours, offices and episodes were 3 am-Lauds-The Visitation of Elizabeth; 6 am-Prime-The Nativity; 9 am-Terce-The Annunciation to the Shepherds; Noon-Sixt-The Adoration of the Magi; 3 pm-Nones-The Presentation in the Temple; 6 pm-Vespers-The Flight into Egypt; 9 pm-Compline-The Coronation of the Virgin. (James Thorpe, Book of Hours: Illuminations by Simon Marmion [San Marino, CA: Huntingdon Library, 1976], p. 2-3)

4. Aries and Duby, History of Private Life, p. 530.

5. de Hamel, History of Illuminated Manuscripts, p. 175.

6. Raymond Cazelles and Johannes Rathofer. Illuminations of Heaven and Earth: The Glories of the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1988), p. 300

7. Roberg G.Calkins, Distribution of Labor: The Illuminators of the Catherine of Cleves and their Workshop (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1979), p. 6

8. de Hamel, History of Illuminated Manuscripts, p. 173.

9. The Cult of the Virgin or the specific honoring of the Virgin Mary and, hence, the glorification of womanhood, has been pinpointed by most scholars as an impetus to the rise of chivalry in the early Medieval period.

10. Claire Donovan, The De Brailes Hours: Shaping the Book of Hours in Thirteenth-Century Oxford. (London: The British Library, 1991), p. 134.

11. Donovan, De Brailes Hours, p. 27-28.

12. The Soissons hours, however, does have several sections of text that the follow Sarum Usage that prevailed in England. (Karen Gould, Psalter and Hours of Yolande of Soissons [Cambridge, MA: The Medieval Society of America, 1978], p. 14.)

13. The noblewoman Yolande of Soissons was born between 1246 and 1254 into the Nesle family of Picardy who became the Comtes de Soisson. Her father Raoul and uncle Jean II, Comte de Soissons, both journeyed to Jerusalem on the Second Crusade in the service of King (later saint) Louis IX . Sometime around 1270 Yolande married a nobleman of Picardy, Bernard V, seigneur d'Moreuil. (Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts: Major Accessions of the Pierpoint Morgan Museum, 1924-1972. [New York: Pierpoint Morgan Museum, 1974], p. 18.) Yolande commissioned her Book of Hours after her marriage and died after the turn of the century.

14. Gould, Psalter and Hours of Yolande of Soissons, p. xv.

15. Gould, Psalter and Hours of Yolande of Soissons, p. 20-23.

16. Holladay, "The Education of Jeanne d'Evreaux: Personal Piety and Dynastic Salvation in Her Book of Hours at the Cloisters. Art History 17:4 (1994): 599, 601.

17. Holladay, "The Education of Jeanne d'Evreaux," p. 604.

18. The manuscript measured only 3 5/8 inches by 2 3/8 inches. In her 1370 will, Jeanne d'Evreaux left the book to the then reigning king Charles V of France and, after his death, to his brother Jean, Duc du Berry. Three inventories of the Duc du Berry's treasures mention "a small Book of Hours of Our Lady called the Hours of Pucelle." (Hours of Jeanne d'Evreaux, Queen of France. Facsimile copy. [New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1957], p. 7-8)

19. The Tres Riches Heures was actually the last of three Books of Hours commissioned by the Duc du Berry and illustrated by the Limbourg Brothers. The other two works, known as the Belle Heures and the Grande Heures, are now in the possession of the Louvre and the Cloisters Museum respectively. Many elements of these two earlier works were transformed in the later and more lavish Tres Riches Heures. (Cazelles and Rathofer, Illuminations of Heaven and Earth, p. 206-7.)

20. Jean, Duc du Berry, born in 1340, was the third son of the Valois dynasty King Jean "Le Bon" of France and brother to King Charles V and the Duc du Burgundy. Berry married first in 1359 to Jean d'Armaneur and again in 1389 to Jeanne d'Bologne. While he was famous for his art collection, he was also known to be an astute politician and in this capacity he served as the viceroy of southern France during the minority of his nephew, King Charles VI.

21. Cazelles and Rathofer, Illuminations of Heaven and Earth, p. 215

22. A few elements in this lavish volume have been traced to the earlier Hours of Jeanne d'Evreaux which had been in the possession of the Duc du Berry at the time of his commission of the Tres Riches Heures. Small miniatures illuminated in the Hours of the Virgin, the hours of the Passion, the hours of the Holy Ghost, and features in the calendar were inspired by illustrator Jean Pucelle's work. (Cazelles and Rathofer, Illuminations of Heaven and Earth, p. 206)

23. Dictionary of the Middle Ages, "Book of Hours," p. 327.

24. Mary of Burgundy was a direct descendent of the Duc du Berry's brother Duc Philippe du Burgundy. She was the sole heiress of her father, Charles the Bold, and had brought elements of her cultured court to her husband's somewhat backward Vienna. (Durant, The Reformation, p. 507)

25. The Book of Hours of the Emperor Maximilian the First. Edited by Walter L. Strauss. (New York: Abaris Books, Inc., 1974), p. 327.

26. At least 750 separate printed editions of Books of Hours were produced between 1485 and 1530. (De Hamel, History of Illuminated Manuscripts, p. 173.)

27. Believing that the more traditional format was the only way to create a book worthy of its contents, important personages continued to commission traditional handwritten and illuminated manuscripts until the end of the Sixteenth Century.

28. Another factor in the decline of the Book of Hours was the development in the Fifteenth Century of thriving artistic schools of mural and easel painting at Fontainbleu, Amiens, Bourges, and in Flanders. Artists had other outlets for expression and as the number of commissions for illuminated manuscripts dwindled with the coming of the printing press, painters began to ply their trade elsewhere. (William Durant, The Reformation: A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin, 1300-1564. [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957.]

29. Donovan, De Brailes Hours, p. 132.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page