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.

Superb vellum leaf from a French Book of Hours. The text is in a bold gothic book hand with eleven illuminated initials and eight line fillers. Both sides include fine floral and vine panels painted in a multitude of colors and gold leaf. The text includes part of Psalm 2 and beginning with the capital "T" at top on recto translates as:

Then will he speak to them in his anger and trouble them with his fury.
Yet I have been appointed king by him over Zion, his holy mountain, preaching his precepts.
The Lord has said to me: You are my son, this day have I begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give to you: the Gentiles for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.
You will rule them with an iron rod, and you will shatter them like a potter’s vessel.
And now, O kings, understand. Receive instruction, you who judge the earth.
Serve the Lord in fear, and exult in him with trembling.
Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord might become angry, and you would perish from the way of the just.
Though his wrath can flare up in a short time, blessed are all those who trust in him.

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Condition: A

Marginal soiling.