Book of Hours were prayer books designed for the laity, but modeled on the Divine Office, a cycle of daily devotions, prayers and readings, performed by members of religious orders and the clergy. Its central text is the Hours of the Virgin. There are eight hours (times for prayer ): Matins, Lauds. Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. During the Middle Ages, the leaves making up a Book of Hours were written by hand on expensive parchment and beautifully illuminated with jewel-like pigments and gold leaf. These illuminated manuscripts combined the collaborative efforts of an array of highly skilled craftspeople; requiring the joint labors of the parchmenter, professional scribes to write the text in Gothic script, artists to illuminate the pages with decorations, and masterful binders to complete the process.

Very early vellum leaf French Book of Hours with decoration typical of the scriptoria of northern France in the second half of the 14th century. The large intials are painted in red, blue, white and burnished gold with the 'tails' of trangular leaves in the same color extending into the margins. At the bottom of the recto is a dramatic winged monster biting its own paw. The text is from Psalm 130.

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Condition: B

Fine vellum with light soil and some abrasion of the script, still good for a 600+ year old leaf.