Ritual and the Hours

At the core of every Book of Hours is the Hours themselves, the main liturgical element of the book. As the name implies, the Hours are time-bound, divided into sections meant to be recited at certain times throughout the day, every day. This cyclical devotion was meant to emulate the constant prayer of monks, making the owner of a Book of Hours act more pious. By far the most common set of Hours was the Hours of the Virgin, based on the Virgin Mary. The sections of the Hours of the Virgin are always the same text, and over time a standard set of images developed to go alongside it.

  • Matins: Annunciation, where an angel tells Mary she will birth Jesus
  • Lauds: Visitation, where a pregnant Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth
  • Prime: Nativity, where Jesus is born
  • Terce: Annunciation to the Shepherds, where locals are informed of Jesus’s birth
  • Sext: Adoration of the Magi, where great kings come to visit the infant Jesus
  • None: Presentation in the Temple, where Jesus is shown to the local Jewish community
  • Vespers: Flight into Egypt, where Mary and her family flee persecution from the government
  • Compline: Coronation of the Virgin, where Mary is risen into Heaven and crowned its Queen

Not every book will have exactly the same images– sometimes the coronation is replaced with Mary's death, for example– but these are the most common.

A carousel of hours, cobbled together from the illustrations in Books of Hours from throughout France and Italy in the fifteenth century. While each has stylistic idiosyncrasies, the overall pattern of events shown is consistent.

There are a few other sets of Hours that are commonly represented in Books of Hours. Of these, the Short Hours of the Cross and Short Hours of the Holy Spirit are often grouped together. Serving as alternates to the morning prayers of the Hours of the Virgin, it is often only matins that appears in a given book. Matins of the Cross is usually accompanied by an image of the Crucifixion, and matins of the Holy Spirit by an image of the Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit appeared to Mary and to Jesus’s apostles. Where exactly these Hours are placed varies from book to book; they may be after matins of the Virgin, after the full Hours of the Virgin, or at the back of the book. Occasionally, the Long Hours of the Cross appears, a full alternative to the Hours of the Virgin with its own complete image cycle depicting the Passion and death of Jesus. This may follow the Hours of the Virgin or replace it entirely.

Book of hours : use of Rome, [ca. 1450].
Book of hours : use of Rome, [ca. 1450].

The Short Hours of the Cross are represented here by the Crucifixion, and the Short Hours of the Holy Spirit by the Pentecost. Only the Matins prayers of each are in this particular book, which was common.

The Entombment of Jesus was one of the images used for the Long Hours of the Cross, which included a full set of hours to be read throughout the day. This artist has surrounded the core image with depictions of reactions to it, from Mary and Roman soldiers to God and His angels responding to the tragedy.