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 is a lovely, tiny leaf from a Book of Hours created in Tours/Rouen around 1430. The book was so small, it must have been the property of a lady who carried it in her purse. This leaf includes 6 initials in red, blue and burnished gold, as well as vines and leaves in the margins on verso. The verso includes part of Psalm 40, and beginning with the large initial "B" translates as:

Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor: the Lord will deliver him in the evil day.
The Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth: and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.
The Lord help him on his bed of sorrow.

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Condition: B+

Light toning and soiling and a bit of fading of the ink.