French Books Of Hours: Making An Archive Of Prayer, C.1400?600

The book of hours was a 'best-seller' in medieval and early modern Europe, the era's most commonly produced and owned book. This interdisciplinary study explores its increasing popularity and prestige, offering a full account of the book of hours as a book - how it was acquired, how it was read to guide prayer and teach literacy and what it meant to its owners as a personal possession. Based on the study of over 500 manuscripts and printed books from France, Virginia Reinburg combines a social history of the book of hours with an ethnography of prayer. Approaching the practice of prayer as both speech and ritual, she argues that a central part of the book of hours' appeal for lay people was its role as a bridge between the liturgy and the home. Reinburg describes how the book of hours shaped religious practice through the ways in which it was used.

• • Author: Virginia Reinburg
• • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• • Publication Date: Nov 06, 2014
• • Number of Pages: 312 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Paperback
• • ISBN-10: 1107460069
• • ISBN-13: 9781107460065