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 vellum bifolium comes from a French Book of Hours, written in a regular book hand in or near Rouen. Each page is illuminated on both sides with numerous initials and line fillers in red, blue, white and burnished gold leaf. A large, three-line historiated initial 'D' dominates the recto, which is further embellished with a beautiful floral panel in the margins. Beginning with the large "D," the text translates in part as:

O God, reach out to help me. O Lord, hasten to assist me.
Glory to the Father as it was.
The Lord has reigned. He has been clothed with beauty.
The Lord has been clothed with strength, and he has girded himself.
Yet he has also confirmed the world, which will not be moved.

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Condition: A

Very light toning and soiling.