BOOK OF HOURS. – From the ecclesiastical Latin *Horae* (the seven parts into which the divine office is divided) it is a devotional book for the use of the faithful, characterized by the presence of the Little Office of the Virgin and the Office of the Dead, which constitute its essential part. Composed in part of liturgical texts taken from the Breviary, so that it might be called the layman’s Breviary, the B. of H. (in French *Livres d’Heures*, English *Prymer*, Spanish *L. de Horas*, German *Stundembuch*) belongs to the extra-liturgical literature that nourished the piety of the faithful in the last centuries of the Middle Ages and the early modern period.
I. ORIGIN AND CONTENT
The B. of H. must not be confused either with the *Libelli precum* or the *Preces devotae*, whose prototypes go back to the Carolingian period (cf. ed. by A. Wilmart, *Precum libelli quattuor aevi Karolini*, Rome 1940; id., *Manuel de prières de st Jean Gualbert*, in *Rev. bénéd.*, 48 [1936], pp. 259–92, a 11th-century copy of a 9th-century prototype), nor with the Psalter, which was practically the most common prayer book down to the end of the 13th century. From Cornelimünster and the great Benedictine abbeys of the Carolingian reform (St Benedict of Aniane) came the use, later made almost universal by the influence of Cluny, of adding to the choral office a certain number of supplementary prayers, such as the seven penitential psalms, the litanies of the saints, the Office of the Dead, the Little Office of the Virgin, suffrages in honor of God and the saints. It is precisely these supplementary prayers that became the essential elements of the B. of H., which in the manuscript tradition, down to the first printed editions of the late 15th century, appear with a rich variety of nuances in their constituent elements according to these. Only with printing did the various types of B. of H., depending on their place of origin, assume a more clearly defined character. Originally the B. of H. (late 12th and 13th century) began as a supplement inserted at the end of the Psalter (rarely in the Missal, very rarely in the Breviary), from which it separated at the end of the 13th century, thus giving rise, with the addition of some new elements, to the true B. of H., which 15th-century scribes multiplied in an extraordinary way (towards the end of the Hundred Years’ War it was fashionable to own a B. of H.) and which the printers and publishers of the 16th century transformed into exquisite works of art, of unsurpassable gaiety and vividness of color. The Psalter–B. of H. constitutes the point of transition from the Psalter proper to the B. of H. It should be noted that the expressions “Great” or “Little Hours” (*grandes petites Heures*) refer only to the format.The essential elements of the B. of H. are: 1) The calendar, often enriched by the scribe’s imagination; 2) excerpts from the four Gospels (Jn 1:1–14; Lk 1:26–38; Mt 2:1–12; Mk 16:14–20); 3) the prayers to the Virgin *Obsecro te* and *O Intemerata*, found in almost all manuscripts but in different versions; 4) the Little Office of the Virgin (*Cursus* or *Hore Virginis Marie*, whence the name of the book), which is its essential part. The structure of this Office, first attested towards the end of the 10th century, varies according to diocese, abbey, or religious order, which is why it must always be studied with particular care to determine the place of origin of the B. of H. that contains it; 5) the Hours of the Cross (*Parvus ordo de Cruce* and *Ordo Magnus de Cruce*); 6) the Hours of the Holy Spirit (*Parve hore de Sancto Spiritus*); 7) the seven penitential psalms (Pss 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, 142); 8) the Office of the Dead, first attested in the 9th century. The structure of this Office also varies from diocese to diocese, so it must be considered in establishing the place of origin of the B. of H., as was said for the Office of the Virgin; 9) the suffrages (antiphons, versicles, and prayers in honor of God and the saints that in the divine office are recited at Lauds and Vespers; few in the 11th century, they become extraordinarily numerous in the 13th); 10) the litanies of the saints (the presence of local saints can serve to establish the origin of the book). The secondary or accessory elements, whose presence is not constant, are: 1) the Passion according to St John (18:1–19:42); 2) the joys of the Virgin, the seven requests to Our Lord; 3) the 15 gradual psalms (Pss 119–33); 4) the Psalter of St Jerome, i.e. more than a hundred verses taken from Pss 5–142; 5) other prayers in Latin or the vernacular, some of touching simplicity but sometimes of a superstitious character; 6) even profane texts, etc. Sometimes, despite the beauty of the borders and miniatures, the spelling of the texts is very faulty; not even the famous Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry are exempt from this defect. Finally, it should be noted that the preparation of the B. of H. was left to the free choice of the commissioner or scribe, given its essentially private character.
II. ART
The miniatures, many of them full-page, generally fill every leaf of the B. of H. with ornamentation, and besides the religious ones, noteworthy are those relating to the months of the calendar, with allegorical-naturalistic compositions in which the artist1. The number of the first 10 terms of the series is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
\[
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
\[
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
\[
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
\[
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
\[
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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\[
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\[
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
\[
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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\[
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\[
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The sum of the first 10 terms of the sequence is:
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\[
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\[
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\[
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\[
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It could logically exercise its fantasy more freely, and the portraits of the personages for whom the book was illuminated. The Books of Hours by the Limbourg brothers, in fact, are almost always prepared for nobles and rulers, and deservedly celebrated are those of French and Flemish artists; but even the Italian ones (especially Lombard) rank among the finest productions of this kind.
Among the Italian ones, mention should be made here of the *Hours for Bianca Visconti* (Munich, Staatsbibliothek, cod. 23.215), adorned between 1350 and 1378 by Giovanni di Benedetto da Como; akin to these—perhaps from the same workshop—are others in the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris (ms. lat. 757), illuminated c. 1380; the *Hours of Gian Galeazzo and Filippo Maria Visconti* (Florence, Biblioteca Landau-Finaly), with miniatures by Giovanni and Salomone de’ Grassi and artists of the first half of the 15th century; and the *Hours for Bona Sforza* (c. 1484–94; British Museum Add. 34.294), with fine miniatures, perhaps by Antonio da Monza. From the Florentine workshop of Francesco di Antonio del Chierico came the *Hours for Lorenzo the Magnificent* (c. 1490; Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Ashb. 1874), while those from Ferrara at the beginning of the 16th century are the *Hours for Alfonso I d’Este*, in a private collection in Paris.
Among those of the French and Flemish schools, the *Heures de Jean Pucelle* (second half of the 14th century; Paris, collection of M. de Rothschild) are renowned; the *Très riches Heures* of Chantilly, a work from the early 15th century largely due to the Limbourg brothers (Chantilly, Musée Condé, ms. lat. 1284); of the thirty-nine large miniatures, two medium-sized, and twenty-four small ones by these famous Flemish illuminators, those of the Calendar are especially admirable, with representations of courtly and rural life, full of poetry and naturalistic details that result from the direct observation of things which would characterize 15th-century art; the *Grandes* and *Petites Heures de Jean de Berry* and the *Très Belles Heures de Bruxelles*, by Jacquemart de Hesdin, who is recorded in 1384 in the service of the famous bibliophile Jean de Berry; the *Hours of Turin* (Turin, Biblioteca nazionale; Principe Trivulzio and M. de Rothschild), with miniatures once thought to be early works of Jan van Eyck and revealing artistic achievements already fully of the 15th century; the *Grandes Heures de Rohan* (first half of the 15th century; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. lat. 9471); the *Hours of Étienne Chevalier* (Chantilly, Musée Condé and elsewhere), miniatures c. 1455 by Jean Fouquet; the *Hours of Adelaide of Savoy, Duchess of Burgundy* (first half of the 15th century; Chantilly, Musée Condé, ms. lat. 1362); a Book of Hours dated 1460 and decorated for Mary van Vronenstein (or Voornesteyn), from the Utrecht school. Toward the end of the 15th century, following the art of Fouquet, Jean Bourdichon illuminated the *Hours for Federico d’Aragona and Ferdinand I, kings of Naples* (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. lat. 10.532), the splendid *Hours for Anne of Brittany* (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. lat. 9474), rich in nineteen full-page miniatures, plus the twelve of the calendar, as well as a marvelous flowering of decoration. From the mid-16th century is the *Livre d’Heures dit de Jeanne la Folle* (or also L. d’H. Hennessy), with miniatures by the Flemish school, one of the treasures of the Bibliothèque de Bourgogne in Brussels; and in the same library, attributable to the same hand, the *Livre d’Heures d’un Tournaisien*.
A fine example of English illumination is offered by the *Hours for John Lancaster*, brother of Henry V (c. 1414–35; London, British Museum).
With the 16th century, the production of manuscript *Hours* and miniatures came to an end, and printed ones, adorned with woodcuts, took their place. — See pl. LXXXVI.