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 nine illuminated initials and five line fillers. Both sides include fine floral and vine panels painted in a multitude of colors and gold leaf. The text includes parts of Psalms 40 and 41. Beginning with the large initial "E" at the top of the leaf on recto the text translates in part as:

For even the man of my peace, in whom I hoped, who ate my bread, has greatly supplanted me. But you, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up again. And I will requite them. By this, I knew that you preferred me: because my adversary will not rejoice over me. But you have sustained me, because of my innocence, and you have confirmed me in your sight in eternity. Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for all generations and even forever. Amen. Amen.

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Condition: A

A bright leaf with minor marginal soiling and a few small dampstains along the edges of the leaf.