Jeremy Norman’sHistoryofInformation.com Exploring the History of Information and Media through Timelines
Jeremy Norman’s,_KBS-FRB_thumb.jpg "Getijdenboek Van Reynegom (16e eeuw), KBS FRB")
Most often the images in Books of Hours are featured in their description. In this instance the blind-stamped calf binding and the elaborate silver clasp of this luxury volume is featured. Van Reynegom Book of Hours, 2nd quart of the 15th century. Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique.
A: Saint-Omer, Hauts-de-France, France
Book of Hours. France, Saint-Omer, between 1320 and 1329. Morgan Library & Museum MS M.754 fol. 5v.
"Books of Hours constitute one of the most significant groups of cultural artifacts from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Indeed, from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth century, more Books of Hours were produced, both by hand and by press, than any other type of book. They were the bestsellers of an era that lasted 300 years. In an era when some of the most important painting was in books, the illuminated miniatures in manuscript Books of Hours are the picture galleries of the Middle Ages. And straddling the revolution of manuscript to print, Books of Hours are the great constant in a sea of changing readership and competing markets" (Wieck, Painted Prayers, The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art [1997]).
