Manuscript Leaf, from a Book of Hours
Not on view
Books of hours could be customized and made in relatively simple formats as well as luxury editions. This single leaf is a typical example of a page from a somewhat modest book of hours. Although it has a brightly colored border and touches of gilding, it is not lavishly painted. Instead of a stately formal script, the hand here is a semi-cursive minuscule variant of a more informal, "bastardized" (or bâtarde) script. The frequent use of abbreviations seems to imply that the reader was quite familiar with the prayers. This page comes from the Hours of the Holy Spirit.
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