|
The book of hours is a Christian devotional book popular in the Middle Ages. It is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. Like every manuscript, each manuscript book of hours is unique in one way or another, but most contain a similar collection of texts, prayers and psalms, often with appropriate decorations, for Christian devotion. Illumination or decoration is minimal in many examples, often restricted to decorated capital letters at the start of psalms and other prayers, but books made for wealthy patrons may be extremely lavish, with full-page miniatures. Books of hours were usually written in Latin (the Latin name for them is ''horae''), although there are many entirely or partially written in vernacular European languages, especially Dutch. The English term ''primer'' is usually now reserved for those books written in English. Tens of thousands of books of hours have survived to the present day, in libraries and private collections throughout the world. The typical book of hours is an abbreviated form of the breviary which contained the Divine Office recited in monasteries. It was developed for lay people who wished to incorporate elements of monasticism into their devotional life. Reciting the hours typically centered upon the reading of a number of psalms and other prayers. A typical book of hours contains: * A Calendar of Church feasts * An excerpt from each of the four gospels * The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary * The fifteen Psalms of Degrees * The seven Penitential Psalms * A Litany of Saints * An Office for the Dead * The Hours of the Cross〔(Danish Royal Library )〕 * Various other prayers Most 15th-century books of hours have these basic contents. The Marian prayers ''Obsecro te'' ("I beseech thee") and ''O Intemerata'' ("O undefiled one") were frequently added, as were devotions for use at Mass, and meditations on the Passion of Christ, among other optional texts. ==History== The book of hours has its ultimate origin in the Psalter, which monks and nuns were required to recite. By the 12th century this had developed into the breviary, with weekly cycles of psalms, prayers, hymns, antiphons, and readings which changed with the liturgical season.〔Eamon Duffy, "A Very Personal Possession: Eamon Duffy Tells How a Careful Study of Surviving Books of Hours Can Tell Us Much About the Spiritual and Temporal Life of Their Owners and Much More Besides." History Today 56.11 (Nov 2006): 12(7).〕 Eventually a selection of texts was produced in much shorter volumes and came to be called a book of hours.〔John Harthan "The Book of Hours: With a Historical Survey and Commentary by John Harthan.: New York: Crowell, 1977.〕 Many books of hours were made for women. There is some evidence that they were sometimes given as a wedding present from a husband to his bride.〔John Harthan〕 Frequently they were passed down through the family, as recorded in wills.〔 Although the most heavily illuminated books of hours were enormously expensive, a small book with little or no illumination was affordable much more widely, and increasingly so during the 15th century. The earliest surviving English example was apparently written for a laywoman living in or near Oxford in about 1240. It is smaller than a modern paperback but heavily illuminated with major initials, but no full-page miniatures. By the 15th century, there are also examples of servants owning their own Books of Hours. In a court case from 1500, a pauper woman is accused of stealing a domestic servant's prayerbook.〔Eamon Duffy〕 Very rarely the books included prayers specifically composed for their owners, but more often the texts are adapted to their tastes or sex, including the inclusion of their names in prayers. Some include images depicting their owners, and some their coats of arms. These, together with the choice of saints commemorated in the calendar and suffrages, are the main clues for the identity of the first owner. By the 15th century, various stationer's shops mass-produced books of hours in the Netherlands and France. By the end of the 15th century, the advance of printing made books more affordable and much of the emerging middle-class could afford to buy a printed book of hours. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Book of hours」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|