Book of Hours (Use of Rome) with inclusion of Primer.

Unknown artist

1490

217 manuscript leaves on vellum illus. (miniatures, illuminated initials and borders) 23.5 cm.

Princeton Digital PUL

A closed, aged, brown leather-bound book is shown from the front cover. The binding is visible on the left edge. A closed, aged, brown leather-bound book is shown from the front cover. The binding is visible on the left edge. The most unusual aspect of the text of the present manuscript is the inclusion of a Primer in a separate quire (ff. 19v-26) before the Hours of the Virgin. Roger Wieck (Painted Prayers, New York, 1997, pp. 12-13) has written on this very rare phenomenon in Books of Hours, and he has identified a very small group of manuscripts in which such Primers occur (e.g. Pierpont Morgan Library MS M. 487). MS M. 487 is a manuscript written for a child, soiled, and of poor quality. Of special interest, therefore, is not only the rare