Books of hours were popular Christian devotional texts in the Middle Ages, containing prayers, psalms, and religious texts. They were hand-written and decorated, and varied in content and quality. They were meant for lay people to integrate religious practice into daily life, and were available in both expensive illuminated versions and cheaper printed editions.
A book of hours is a Christian devotional text that contains an assortment of prayers, psalms, religious texts, and excerpts from the Christian liturgy. Books of hours were extremely popular during the Middle Ages and may have been the most widely produced books in medieval Europe. Today, such books are relatively rare, but hundreds of extant medieval books of hours can be found on display in museums, for people who wish to examine these remarkable texts for themselves.
The contents of a book of hours would have varied, depending on who owned it and when it was produced. In essence, the Book of Hours was meant for lay people who wanted to integrate religious practice and monastic prayer into their daily lives. Typically, the front of a book of hours included a liturgical calendar with major feasts and holidays, followed by prayers, gospel readings, stories, and other devotional texts. The “hours” in the Book of Hours were the Hours of the Virgin, prayers said at eight fixed points throughout the day.
Before the advent of printing, each book of hours was also hand written and decorated by hand. Only the wealthiest members of society could afford these devotional books, and they often dueled with each other over commissions for the best books of hours. The illustrations in these illuminated manuscripts could get quite lavish, as could the decorations on the binding, and some people even requested personalized content such as special prayers written especially for them. The more conspicuous one’s book of hours was, the more it was assumed to be about Christian devotion.
Life in the Middle Ages was difficult for people of all classes, and religious faith was often strengthened during times of adversity. Many people wanted to take up Christian prayer and the books of hours made it easier. A number of bookshops and scriptoriums capitalized on the craze, producing cheap versions for members of the lower classes that became even more affordable with the advent of printing.
Classically, the text in a book of hours would be in Latin, although some versions in various European dialects have also been produced. The books of hours ranged from carefully illuminated versions for the upper crust to generic printed editions without illustrations for members of the lower classes. Generic or not, timebooks were considered family treasures, with many families writing important events such as birth and death dates in their timebooks to personalize them.
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