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 numerous illuminated initials and two line fillers in red, blue and burnished gold leaf. Both sides include a fine floral and vine frame painted in a multitude of colors and gold leaf. The text includes Psalm 97 and part of Psalm 98, and beginning with the large letter "C" on recto, translates as:

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has performed wonders. His right hand has accomplished salvation for him, with his holy arm.
The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his justice in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing joyfully to God, all the earth. Sing and exult, and sing psalms.
Sing psalms to the Lord with a lute, with a lute and the voice of a psalmist,

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Condition: A

Minor dampstains and soiling along the edges of the leaf.