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 initials illuminated 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 portions of Psalms 98-100, and beginning with the large initial "I" on recto translates in part as:

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth. Serve the Lord with rejoicing. Enter into his sight in exultation.
Know that the Lord himself is God. He made us, and we ourselves did not. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with confession, his courts with hymns, and acknowledge him. Praise his name.
For the Lord is sweet, his mercy is in eternity, and his truth is from generation to generation.

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Condition: A

Clean and bright with minor stains along the far edges of the leaf.