Books of hours and their owners

London: Thames and Hudson, 1988 4to (31 cm), 192 pp. Publisher's cloth and dust jacket. From the blurb: "Of all the precious illuminated manuscripts that survive from the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Books of Hours form the largest single category: the personal prayerbooks of a devout and status-conscious society. Their content come from the official service books of the Church, but they were not made under priestly control, and they therefore reveal a unique combination of sacred and secular imagery. No two are alike; every one, modest or magnificent, has something individual to tell us. John Harthan begins with a fresh and wide-ranging study of the background to Books of Hoars, their making, their content, their decoration and their social and devotional meaning. There follows an anthology of over ninety manuscript pages, reproduced in full colour from thirty-four Books of Hours, with the author's descriptive, explanatory and historical notes on the books themselves and their owners. The examples represent a wide range of styles, dates and countries, and include little-known as well as famous examples. A final section describes and illustrates the development of the printed Book of Hours; for this 'late medieval best-seller' was as important to the early printers as it was to the scribes and illuminators."