French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c.1400–1600
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 2/2/2012
EAN 9781107007215, ISBN10: 1107007216
Hardcover, 312 pages, 23.5 x 15.5 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
The Book of Hours was a 'best-seller' in medieval and early modern Europe, the era's most commonly produced and owned book. This interdisciplinary study explores its increasing popularity and prestige, offering a full account of the Book of Hours as a book - how it was acquired, how it was read to guide prayer and teach literacy and what it meant to its owners as a personal possession. Based on the study of over 500 manuscripts and printed books from France, Virginia Reinburg combines a social history of the Book of Hours with an ethnography of prayer. Approaching the practice of prayer as both speech and ritual, she argues that a central part of the Book of Hours' appeal for lay people was its role as a bridge between the liturgy and the home. Reinburg describes how the Book of Hours shaped religious practice through the ways in which it was used.
Introduction
Part I. A Social History of the Book of Hours
Prologue to Part I
1. Culture and commerce
2. Owners and their books
3. Prayer book and primer
Part II. An Ethnography of Prayer
Prologue to Part II
4. Words and rites
5. A fragment of a religion
6. Prayer to the Virgin Mary
Conclusion
Bibliography.