Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Introduces Books of Hours to general readers, and features examples of illuminated pages from medieval and Renaissance books. Discusses iconography, specific artists, and the role of the books in everyday life, and translates key passages. Includes color examples of illuminated pages from The Pierpont Morgan Library, with explanatory captions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This book doubles as a readable, lavishly illustrated introduction to books of hours, and as the exhibition catalog for 100 masterpieces of the genre at the Pierpont Morgan Library, dating from the 13th to 16th centuries and exhibited under the title "Medieval Bestseller: The Book of Hours." Organized following the usual order of texts in this type of manuscript, the volume is particularly useful in giving sample sections of, and explanations for, the texts found in what was the most common book of the later Middle Ages. Since the book of hours is no longer used by the Catholic Church, its texts (once known by everyone in Christendom) are now very difficult of access and thus this volume will be of great use for graduate students and scholars as well as the general public, for whom it was designed. The 107 color plates are accompanied by descriptions of text, image, and style. Inclusion of a number of early printed horae as well as illuminated manuscripts is particularly welcome. A good bibliography surveying recent literature in the field is appended, including the author's longer and more scholarly Walters Art Gallery exhibition catalog Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life of 1988. General; undergraduate (including two-year technical program) through professional. J. Oliver; Colgate University

Kirkus Book Review

Notes Wieck (curator of medieval manuscripts at the Pierpont Morgan Library), ``The Book of Hours was the bestseller of the late middle ages.'' Heavily, often gorgeously, illustrated prayer books commissioned by the wealthy, they got their name because they contain a sequence of 37 prayers to the Mother of God intended to be recited throughout the course of the day. From the Morgan Library collections Wieck has drawn some 100 examples, reproduced in color. Much of the work is stunning, including a straightforward portrait of a meditative Christ, and a 1440 painting of a Bosch- like Mouth of Hell. The miniaturists who provided paintings for the books also decorated borders and even filled entire pages with abstract designs as well as with the tiny, precise figures of devils, angels, sinners, and saints. They also relied on their own world for inspiration for backgrounds, providing some wonderful views of medieval peasants and landscapes, castles and churches. Wieck provides a deft survey of the subject, and the illustrations, still fresh after six centuries, glowing with color and a fervent sense of faith, offer a unique glimpse of another time.