Books of Hours Reconsidered (Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art History)

This collection of essays provides essential studies on the production, use, and evolution of the Books of Hours.

For over three hundred years, more Books of Hours were made than any other type of book, even the Bible. From c. 1225, when the first Books of Hours began to appear, to 1571, when during the Counter-Reformation Pope Pius V prohibited the use of all existing Books of Hours, nearly every European family of a certain means owned a Book of Hours. Books of Hours Reconsidered present recent research on this "medieval bestseller" in twenty-one essays written by international scholars. The scholarship in this volume helps instill Books of Hours with new life and give them new meaning at a moment when interest in Books of Hours is on the rise.