 | Books of Hours |
| | Books of Hours |
Books of Hours were the books most commonly produced in Christian Europe from around1250 to 1500 AD. Fundamentally, they were a prayer book which contained a simplified formof the liturgy of the hours said by priests, monks and nuns. The laity wished to share inthe liturgy of the hours, and devotion to Mary was at a peak, so it was the office of theBlessed Virgin, found in most breviaries and other office books, that was adapted to layuse. The majority of books of hours were produced in France and the lowlands.
The popularity of such an expensive artefact, hand-written and hand-decorated, restedon the emergence alongside the nobility of a middle class who could afford to purchase anddisplay such a book and who were literate enough to sometimes use it. On the flyleavesthey recorded marriages and births; in the margins of the liturgical calendars they notedthe anniversaries of deaths of friends and families; and on blank pages they added prayersthat they liked. The wealthy could have lavish books made to order with prayers andpaintings of their favorite saints; the less affluent purchased more standardized,mass-produced versions. In either case, using their books of hours the laity could pray atintervals through the day -- matins and lauds at daybreak, prime at 6 AM, terce at 9 AM,sext at noon, none at 3 PM, vespers at sunset and compline before retiring -- renderingeach portion of their daily round holy and thus approximating the Pauline admonition topray always. They prayed the psalms, antiphons and orations slowly and probably out loud.They took their books of hours to Sunday mass if the basic mass texts were written in thebook. How closely connected were the prayer life of the laity and their books of hours isindicated in the illuminations of the books themselves: over and over at the Annunciationthe young lay woman Mary is shown kneeling with her book of hours open.
Some books of hours begin with a calendar listing saints for some or all of the days ofthe year. Important feasts are indicated in red; if the feasts which are thus rubricatedare of local importance only, it helps us pinpoint the area with which the book of hourswas originally connected. In some books of hours the calendars are illustrated by thesigns of the zodiac and the labors (and some leisures) of the months. The labors are thoseof rural peasants, which is odd since the books were meant for other classes: January:feasting (or keeping warm); February: keeping warm (or chopping wood, pruning, breakingground, feasting); March: pruning (or breaking ground); April: picking flowers (orhawking); May: hawking (or riding, courting, making music); June: mowing (or shearingsheep); July: reaping (or mowing); August: threshing (or reaping, winnowing); September:treading grapes (or harvesting grapes, sowing, ploughing); October: sowing (or treadinggrapes, harvesting grapes, ploughing, thrashing for acorns); November: thrashing foracorns (or slaughtering a pig, slaughtering an ox, baking); December: slaughtering a pig(or, baking, roasting pigs). Could variations help indicate provenance; e.g., would grapeharvesting and treading be more likely to be omitted in an English book of hours?
By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the calendar was followed by a gospel lessonfrom each of the four evangelists, sometimes accompanied by a miniature showing theevangelist or his symbol: John = eagle; Luke = ox; Matthew = angel; Mark = lion. Usuallythe evangelist is shown writing into a codex, as though he were a medieval scribe;sometimes an incident from the evangelist's life is shown instead.
At the heart of the book of hours are the hours of the virgin, a series of shortoffices dedicated to Mary, which parallel the longer offices of the monastic and clericalbreviary. Each hour consists of antiphons, psalms, hymns, prayers, verses and responses.For the beginning of each hour there was a standard cycle of illuminations: annunciation,visitation, nativity, annunciation to the shepherds, adoration of the magi, presentationin the temple, flight into Egypt or massacre of the innocents, coronation of the Virgin,or Assumption, etc. The depictions of shepherds provide interesting indications of whatpainters thought of these rustics. Occasionally this traditional infancy sequence isreplaced by a cycle devoted to the sufferings of Christ: agony in the garden, betrayal,Christ before Pilate, scourging, carrying the cross, crucifixion, deposition, burial.
These two offices may come almost anywhere in a book of hours, but most often theyfollow the Hours of the Virgin. Each set of offices may be included as an independentcycle running from Matins and Lauds to Compline, or the Matins and Lauds of these twooffices may follow right after the Matins and Lauds of the Virgin and so forth. These twooffices are usually very short, and sometimes do not include all eight hours. The hours ofthe cross are usually introduced by a crucifixion scene; occasionally there is a series ofilluminations, one for each hour. These are like the passion sequence that sometimesaccompanies the Hours of the Virgin.
Many different prayers could be inserted into a book of hours. These two, addressed toMary, are found most often. The first is often accompanied by a painting of the Madonna,the latter by a pietà. Both prayers are heartfelt, personal addresses of the personpraying to Mary. Hence, if the person who commissioned the book wished his or her portraitincluded, this was a logical place. Also, by noting whether the prayers use masculine orfeminine forms, one can get a clue about the gender of the original owner.
Because of their content and following Cassiodorus, the medieval church designatedPsalms 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142 the penitential psalms. These made good penancesfor confession. The traditional illuminations at the beginning of these psalms were Davidin Prayer (he wrote the psalms and found many opportunities to be penitent) or Christ asJudge or King of Heaven. Next follows a litany, which addresses various saints with theentreaty "Pray for us." When unusual saints are mentioned they may provideindications about the home city or diocese of the original owner.
Owners and manufacturers could introduce any additional prayers they wished. There wereabout a dozen which were more popular than the rest. They included: the fifteen (or someother number) joys of Mary; seven requests to the Lord, which are reminders to him ofothers who have received his mercy; the hymn "Stabat mater" about Mary at thefoot of the cross; a prayer to the holy face of Christ (Salve sancta facies) which isusually illustrated by a miniature of Veronica; the traditional hours for each day of theweek (e.g. Sunday hours of the Trinity; Thursday hours of the Blessed Sacrament) sometimesaccompanied by the texts for the corresponding votive mass; the Mass of the Virgin; theseven short prayers of St. Gregory; prayers for use during mass.
These are short prayers to saints. They were often accompanied by a portrait of thesaints, who are usually arranged in hierarchic dignity: God, Mary, angels, John theBaptist, apostles, martyrs, confessors., women saints. Christopher, Sebastian, ThomasBecket, Anthony, Nicholas, Francis, Mary Magdalene, Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara, andMargaret are often included.
This office was usually preceded by a single miniature showing a funeral service, wheremonks chanted over a coffin. This office was the same as that used by clergy, perhaps sothat the laity could join in the liturgical offices said for their beloved deceased.
These notes are based on Roger S. Wieck, Time Sanctified: The Book ofHours in Medieval Art and Life New York: Braziller, 1988. (BX 2080 W54).
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Last updated January 2005