BOOK OF HOURS, 12TH / 13TH CENTURY                                                                              
One & one-half folios from a Book of Hours, handwritten on vellum in Latin circa 1150-1250 with extensive use of Uncial initials in red & blue. The Book of Hours was the standard prayer book in Western Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance periods. It was customary for the higher lay classes to carry with then devotional books which contained the fixed festivals of the Church, prayers to selected Saints, Hours of the cross, Hours of the Virgin, the seven penitential psalms, the Litany & prayers, office of the Dead and gradual psalms.
 
The double leaf folio measures 5.5” high x 8.25” wide, the single leaf folio measures 5.5" high x 4.25" wide.