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.

This lovely leaf is from a Book of Hours written in Flanders on a fine sheet of buttery, white vellum in black ink. The text is from the Hours of the Virgin, Psalms 123 and 124. The sheet is embellished with two large and eight small decorative initials and several line fillers, all illuminated in red, blue, white and burnished gold leaf. Decorative panels on both sides are painted with acanthus leaves and colorful flowers. The large initial "N" on the recto begins Psalm 123, which translates as:

If it had not been that the Lord was with us, let Israel now say:
If it had not been that the Lord was with us, When men rose up against us
Perhaps they had swallowed us up alive. When their fury was enkindled against us,
Perhaps the waters had swallowed us up.

The large initial "Q" on the verso begins Psalm 124, which translates as:

They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion:
He shall not be moved for ever that dwelleth in Jerusalem.
Mountains are round about it:
So the Lord is round about his people from henceforth now and for ever.

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Condition: A

Light soiling in right blank margin.