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.

Fine vellum leaf written in black and blue ink with two large initials and a number of small initials and line fillers illuminated in red, blue, white, green and gold. The text is from Psalm 129, and beginning with the large initial "D" on recto, the text translates in part as:

From the depths, I have cried out to you, O Lord.
O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
If you, O Lord, were to heed iniquities, who, O Lord, could persevere?
For with you, there is forgiveness, and because of your law, I persevered with you, Lord.
My soul has persevered in his word.
My soul has hoped in the Lord.

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Condition: B

Light toning, soiling, and foxing.