Christian Works : Officium beate ma-/rie virginis s[ecundu]m co[n]/suetudinem ro/mane curie

Christian Works

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This printed book of hours, in a tiny (16°) format, demonstrates the variety of forms that this important book took after the introduction of print, even while it remained a central plank of household devotion. We are generally aware of the finely illuminated, manuscript books of hours that were made for high-ranking European elites. This modest book, lacking in decoration, is a good example of how what was originally an “ecclesiastical” book eventually became a portable everyday object, affordable and used regularly by a vast audience, especially of pious women. Household inventories from sixteenth-century Italy reveal that books of hours were the most commonly owned books up and down the social scale. Most people would have owned a humdrum, printed book of hours for daily use like this one.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Abigail Brundin</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This item is part of the <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/madonnasandmiracles'>Madonnas & Miracles exhibition</a> at the Fitzwilliam Museum, 7th March-4th June 2017</p>