Hours of Simon de Varie

Books of hours contain devotional texts designed to aid private prayer, and they were often lavishly illuminated. Because no other book was created in greater quantity in the late Middle Ages, the book of hours has come to be called the medieval bestseller. This exhibition from the Getty's permanent collection explores manuscripts dating from the mid-1100s to the mid-1500s, including illuminated books of hours and their earlier monastic precursors, psalters and breviaries.

	Hours of Simon de Varie

Who owned books of hours?

These personalized books were often tailor-made for a specific patron, and their pages were illuminated by some of the most accomplished artists of the period. Jean Fouquet, a favorite painter at the French royal court, depicted this book's patron, Simon de Varie, praying to the Virgin and Child painted on the opposite page (see the image above). Varie's coat of arms, as well as his mottoes, Vie à mon désir (Life according to one's desire) and Plus que jamais (More than ever), appear behind him and in the borders. Often obscure in meaning, personal mottoes were fashionable in late medieval court circles.

The Entombment
Learn how to use a medieval calendar

What is a book of hours?

One might say that the book of hours is a church calendar and day planner of prayer, for it helps to organize time throughout the year and to structure daily devotion. The central text is the Hours of the Virgin, which includes Psalm verses, hymns, prayers, and readings to be recited during the eight canonical hours of the day: Matins (before dawn), Lauds (daybreak), Prime (6:00 a.m.), Terce (9:00 a.m.), Sext (noon), None (3:00 p.m.), Vespers (sunset), and Compline (evening). In addition, these manuscripts include a calendar of the major feast days and the tools used to calculate the date of Easter, the most important feast day of the Christian calendar.

This illumination for Compline, the last canonical hour, shows the Entombment of Christ. It was meant to inspire devotional meditation at the end of the day.

	Annunciation to the Shepherds

Why were books of hours so popular?

These books became popular during the late Middle Ages among lay Christians (the faithful who were not ordained as clerics or did not take monastic vows) seeking greater participation in the devotional life of the Catholic Church and a more intimate relationship with God and the saints. During this period, groups of pious laypeople assembled for communal worship beyond regular church attendance. The Hours of the Virgin, a small text that had previously appeared in the breviary and the psalter, became the core text of the book of hours.

Portable Altarpiece with the Weeping Madonna

Other common texts found in books of hours

A number of other texts were commonly included in books of hours. Unlike the Hours of the Virgin, which consists mainly of Psalm verses and readings from the Bible, this prayer, the O Intemerata, directly addresses the Virgin and asks for her aid. The French artist Georges Trubert illuminated the prayer with a portrait of another work of art, a celebrated Byzantine icon of the Virgin that belonged to the artist's patron, King René I of Anjou (1409–1480).

	Saint George and the Dragon

Most books of hours contain suffrages, short prayers asking for the aid of individual saints. These prayers reflect both personal and regional preferences for certain saints. This miniature for the suffrage for Saint George is an example of courtly sophistication. Saint George, who came to be an important model for the nobility, was said to have saved the only daughter of a pagan king and queen (shown looking out of a tower in the upper left corner of the border) from a dragon. In recognition of his help, the whole kingdom converted to Christianity.