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.
A nice vellum manuscript written in black ink with two large initials and numerous small initials in red and blue ink with burnished gold leaf. The text includes Psalm 130, and beginning with the initial "D" at top on verso, translates as:
O Lord, my heart has not been exalted, and my eyes have not been raised up. Neither have I walked in greatness, nor in wonders beyond me.
When I was not humble in thought, then I lifted up my soul. Like one who has been weaned from his mother, so was I recompensed in my soul.
Let Israel hope in the Lord, from this time forward and even forever.
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Condition: B+
Light toning and soiling with a dampstain along the fore-edge.