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 'C' dominates the recto, which is further embellished with a beautiful floral panel in the margins. Beginning with the large "C," the text translates in part as:

Convert us, O God, our Savior, and turn your anger away from us. God be my help.
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me until the end? How long will you turn your face away from me?
How long can I take counsel in my soul, sorrowing in my heart throughout the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Look upon me and listen to me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes, lest I fall asleep forever in death,
lest at any time my enemy may say, “I have prevailed against him.”
Those who trouble me will exult, if I have been disturbed.
But I have hoped in your mercy. My heart will exult in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, who assigns good things to me.
And I will sing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High.

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Condition: B+

Light toning and soiling.