Prior to the fifteenth century, manuscripts (books written, illuminated, and bound by hand) were commissioned by wealthy aristocratic patrons who had the privilege of literacy and education. Thus, manuscript ownership was closely linked to elite social status. Access to manuscript ownership began to be extended to the wealthy urban social classes by the fifteenth century. Finally, by 1520, those in other urban social classes had access to ownership of a book of hours [9]. A book of hours, whether a commissioned luxury manuscript or a ready-made printed volume, was a treasured possession passed down to the next generation or offered as generous, important gifts. The book of hours made practice of spirituality accessible to the layperson, offering a pious retreat from the worldly pleasures. The pursuit for piety could be on their own terms rather than having to commit their life to join the strict practices of the clergy. The outstanding number of commissions for books of hours offers insight into the attitude of the medieval laymen towards religion and to what degree that it was incorporated into their life. Both men and women commissioned manuscripts. In fact, there is a notable relationship between women as patrons and users of books of hours. Pronoun use in the text, inclusion of prayers and religious texts that relate to female life experiences, and portraits of female patrons indicate the identity of the user and the spiritual matters important to the female user at the time. Following the patronage, use, gifting, and bequeathing of books of hours by and amongst women has offered a glimpse into the life and relationships of upper-class medieval women. Reingburg refers to Susan Groag Bell’s research in which Bell notes that there is attraction of women to vernacular and devotional texts and attributes female book ownership to supporting pious practices and facilitating the development of vernacular literature in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries [10]. A book of hours had three main functions: it was a record of religious practices, it offered a liturgical framework for religious practice, and offered a personal script for prayers. Each of the eight hours of prayer in The Hours of The Virgin, discussed above, had readings with invitatory phrases (phrases inviting/queuing the practitioner to worship), a hymn, three psalms, a reading called a capitulum (‘small chapter’), and prayers which were interspersed with antiphons (short chants), versicles, and responses [11]. Book of hours owners, both men and women, would have used the book in their daily lives both in private and group settings, much like the Bible is used by Christians today. The owners may have brought the books to church to follow certain parts of the service, use them to guide private devotion, to follow reading from the office of the dead during funerary practices, and teach their children how to read and pray [12]. The images in a book of hours were just as important to the spiritual value and practice of the book. Like icons in a church, the images created a space for the devotee to sit in conversation with the saint or to become a participant in the story depicted.

The quality of the paintings in the folios is stunning. They are large, occupying most of the page, and interact beautifully with their borders and adjacent text. The paint layers, lots of blues and greens, and shell gold paint have been liberally applied. Two striking features of the paintings are the refined modeling of form to create lifelike portraits; and the captivating rooms that each figure is occupying with vignette landscapes seen through a window or doorway. It is easy to get lost in the images and ‘wander’ the spaces, making it easy to understand the meditative function of the paintings. Following Husband’s description of content organization, the conservator estimates that the illuminations of St. Matthew and St. Mark belong to the section with selected readings from the Gospels and the illuminations of St. Margaret and the Dragon, St. Christopher, St. Sebastian, St. Pope Urban, and St. Ives belong to the Suffrages. The Pentecost was a common illustration that was used in the shorter Hours of the Holy Spirit [12].

The St. Matthew and St. Mark folios portray each author writing their gospel accompanied by their associated symbol—St. Matthew’s angel and St. Mark’s lion (fig. 1 and fig. 2). This iconography was typical of a book of hours following a tradition traced to classical antiquity [13]. The portraits would have been placed at the beginning of the readings in the order of John, Luke, Matthew, and Mark [14]. The order was chosen based on following the chronology of the life of Jesus described in these Gospels as opposed to the order of these books as they are found in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) [14]. Excerpts taken from Matthew were often related to the story of the Magi coming to worship Jesus in Bethlehem and excerpts from Mark focused on the appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection [15].

The third folio in this collection depicts the Pentecost, the moment when the Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples fifty days after Jesus ascended to heaven. This folio would have been part of the Hours of the Holy Spirit which did not have a set of traditional illuminations as the other offices. Even so, the Pentecost was one of the more common illustrations that is included in this cycle. The Hours of the Holy Spirit was treated as a continuation of the Hours of the Cross by both the creators of the manuscript and the practitioner. In some manuscripts, the vignettes in the decorative borders of the Hours of the Cross and those in the Hours of the Holy Spirit are linked to each other [16]. Here, Mary sits in the center of the composition with a manuscript in her lap. She is surrounded by praying men and women. While Mary is not included in the Biblical account of the Pentecost, she was the central figure in the medieval paintings of this scene [17]. In most cases, those around Mary represent the twelve disciples of Jesus, yet it is not obvious to the author that this is the case in the Pentecost folio (fig. 3). The Suffrages, also referred to as Memorials as seen in these folios written in French, consist of short prayers to saints, canonized martyrs for or confessors of Christianity. The selection of saints in a book of hours was personalized and arranged according to a hierarchy: God, the Virgin Mary, Michael the Archangel, John the Baptist, the apostles, male martyrs and confessors, female virgin martyrs, and, finally, widows [18]. Some saints were more popular and often included in the Suffrages [19]. St. Christopher, St. Sebastian, and St. Margaret of Antioch are a few of those popular saints and are represented in this collection of folios. Following are summaries of the saints included in the folios.

Saint Christopher, whose name means ‘Christ-bearer’, received advice from a hermit that he would best serve God by ferrying travelers across a dangerous river because of the saint’s particularly large stature. One day the saint ferried across a small child who, despite his size, was the heaviest traveler the saint had ever carried, almost causing him to drown. Once the saint and the child reached the other side of the river, the saint was told that “his shoulders had supported not only the whole world, but also Him who had created it [20].” St. Christopher was the patron of travelers and is not always considered a martyr. He was removed as a saint in 1969 [21]. This folio depicts St. Christopher carrying the child Christ on his shoulders (fig. 4). Christ is indicated by the orb in his hand. The hermit is painted in the background holding a lamp, aiding the saint in his journey. The lamp may also recall the hermit’s guidance of the saint towards his calling.

Saint Sebastian (died c. 290 C.E.) was the patron saint of plague victims. He was very popular during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with the outbreak of the bubonic plague [22]. The saint was a captain in the bodyguard of Roman Emperor Diocletian. When it was discovered that he was a Christian, Diocletian ordered archers to shoot the saint to death. However, St. Irene saved St. Sebastian removing the arrows and nursing him back to health. When St. Sebastian returned to his post the emperor had him clubbed to death. Here, St. Sebastian is tied, in the nude, to a post at the center of a military complex (fig. 5). Two archers fill his body with arrows at close range. Saint Margaret of Antioch was a devout, beautiful virgin who caught the eye of Olybrius, a Roman prefect. He wanted the girl to be his wife or mistress, but she refused. She was tortured and thrown into prison. While in prison a devil in the form of a dragon swallowed her. The cross that she was carrying, and which she is often depicted holding, miraculously caused the beast’s stomach to be split open, freeing the saint.

The dragon is often shown swallowing her robes while she is simultaneously emerging from its belly [23]. She was beheaded after the dragon incident. St. Margaret was the patron saint of pregnant women because of the miraculous emergence from the belly of the dragon and the death of her mother and abandonment by her father as a child. In this rendition, Saint Margaret holds her golden cross in her praying hands as she emerges from the dragon’s belly (fig. 6). The dragon is eating the saint with the train of her robes in his mouth, but he has a pained expression as he experiences the expulsion of the saint out of his stomach. In the folios the saint is referred to as Saint Margaret and the Dragon. Saint Ives is the patron saint of the poor and of lawyers. He trained as a lawyer and was dedicated to supporting the poor. Saint Ives is depicted in his study surrounded by scrolls and codices, appropriate for his station as a lawyer (fig. 7). Saint Pope Urban was a very early Roman pope (200 C.E.) who presided over the church during a time of growth. Here, the saint wears the regalia of a pope holding a large key in one hand and a large codex in the other. He stands in his study surrounded by other codices (fig. 8).

At one point, the author noticed that many of the flowers in the scrolling borders could be identified, even in their stylized representation. The flowers may have been chosen for certain symbolic meaning associated with that flower. This led to the realization that additional meanings were embedded in this imagery, adding another layer to the illuminations and text as a tool for devotion. Schaeffer notes that the incorporation of elements of nature into books of hours aligned with a movement called Divotio Moderna, which started in the Netherlands in the fourteenth century. This movement stemmed from a dissatisfaction of laymen with the behavior of the Catholic church and its clergymen. Those who practiced the Divotio Moderna looked to the natural world and their personal experiences and interpretation to understand the will of God which they then expressed in their layman life experiences [24]. The incorporation of local fauna and flora into illuminated laymen devotional book of hours to enhance personal piousness is linked to this movement [25].

Other symbolic meanings have also been assigned by medieval religious tradition to certain numbers and colors. Numbers held important religious significance during the medieval era. Two important symbolic numbers are three, representing the trinity, and five, representing the five wounds of Christ in his crucifixion [26]. Number and color symbolism was often incorporated into the flower symbolism by choosing flowers with a certain petal count and color. Some examples of symbolic colors used extensively in these folios are blue, associated with royalty; red, associated with Christ’s blood or charity; and white, associated with purity. Artists often used these colors to refer to Mary’s royal status as the mother of Jesus, her charity, and her purity. Certain animals were also used as symbols however, identification of the birds in the folios’ margins was not as obvious and is not discussed. The author was able to identify the red rose, cornflower, thistle, bladder campion (two different kinds), bindweed, delphinium, forget-me-nots, poppy, carnation of the clove pink variation, marigold, daisy, borage, crucifers, and the strawberry. Several other flowers that were repeatedly used could not be definitively identified. The symbolism of the flowers would have been familiar to the reader and would have guided their meandering thoughts back to their meditation. Chart 1 shows images of the actual flower next to their representation in the folios.

All the folios have roses, cornflowers (minus the Pentecost), dianthus flowers also called pinks (minus St. Mark), crucifers, daisy (all but St. Mark, and St. Sebastian), and strawberries. In medieval Christianity, the rose may represent the shedding of Christ’s blood [27]. It is also a symbol of charity and recalls the medieval reference of Mary as the rose without thorns [28]. The cornflower is associated with the Virgin Mary as the crown of Mary [29]. The dianthus flower, which translates to ‘flower of god’, is red and has five petals. The flower refers to the nails of the cross and the coronation crown of Christ. The crucifer is a flower with four petals forming the shape of a cross and includes plants like cabbage and mustard families. The cross shape is a reference of the cross and crucifixion. The crucifer flowers are blue which may be more representative of the speedwell flower, another common flower incorporated in borders of illuminated manuscripts. The daisy was a symbol of innocents [30]. The strawberry is used ubiquitously in manuscript borders and is an example of a single symbol having multiple implications. The strawberry can indicate the fruit of good works [31]. The red of the fruit and the white flower can also refer to the Virgin like the red rose of charity and white lily of purity, the fruit and its flower capture both meanings [32]. Depiction of the whole strawberry plant—fruit, flower, and three-part leaf—may also be used to symbolize the trinity or the crucifixion [33]. The consistent use in all the borders of these flowers, leads the author to believe that their symbolism is more general to recall the spiritual importance of the Book of Hours, evoking the Virgin Mary and the crucifixion. Several of the other border flowers appear with less regularity and may be more specifically linked to the illumination that they surround. This includes the marigold (Pentecost), bindweed (St. Pope Christopher), poppy (St. Matthew), bladder campion (St. Pope Urban), thistle (St. Pope Urban, St. Matthew), borage (St. Sebastian, St. Margaret, Pentecost), delphinium (St. Pope Urban), and forget-me-not (St. Margaret). It was possible to determine the meanings for some of these flowers. The marigold, in the calendula family, may symbolize royalty because of its golden color but it also is associated with sorrow [34]. The combination of royalty and sorrow fit nicely as a reference for the Virgin because of her royal status and her sorrow as a co-sufferer with Jesus [35]. The bindweed is often used to reference humility because of it white and soft pink flowers and its habit of growing and blooming close to the ground [36]. The forget-me-not had an established symbolism for love and consistency in the medieval era [37]. Borage was associated with courage [38]. The degree of interaction between the borders and the painting of a religious illuminated manuscript varies and appears to be a stylistic choice made by the artist, most likely in combination with the size of the patron’s purse. The Spitz Book of Hours in the Getty Center’s collection is a good example of borders of an illumination with vignettes that add narration to the main scene of the center painting. This is observed in fol. 172v of the Spitz Hours. Another example may be found in the Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves in The Morgan Library & Museum’s collection. The imagery in the borders of the folios treated at the WACC have a more general interaction with the painting. Of course, there are many ways a symbol may be interpreted depending on the lens used to analyze it. The reader is advised to take the meanings of the flowers presented here, ‘with a grain of salt’, so to speak.

The book of hours that these folios were part of was made during a time when page numbers were not added to help the reader navigate the text. Instead, visual cues in the illuminations and text were used by readers to find their place. The size and degree of decoration of an initial indicated breaks in the text. A hierarchy was denoted by the height, relative to one line of text, and by the degree of decoration. The degree of decoration for this hierarchy was determined by the wealth of the patron and could range from significant amounts of paint and gilding to minimal brushing of letters and decorative penwork called cadel letters. The letters at the top of the hierarchy marked the opening of the text and were the largest and most elaborately painted, often with gilding incorporated into the design [39]. The lowest level of the hierarchy was the inked letters of the text. The penultimate letters were those at the beginning of a phrase which were brushed with red pigment. If this class of letters fell at the beginning of the left margin, then they were larger and more decorated. Folios 110v–111r of the Cleves Hours (MS M.917/945) provides several examples of lettering in the lower levels of this hierarchy. The folios show three different ranks of lettering (see chart 2): the elaborately illuminated letter that is five lines high and placed at the beginning of the text under the illustration; the medium-sized letter, which is two lines high with paint and gilding, letters brushed with organic red paint at the beginning of a ‘sentence’; and the plain text. Some divergence from the rules is present in the text: the large, illuminated letter under the illustration of the Pentecost is seven lines high; some second level decorative letters are found in the middle of the text as opposed to at the left edge; and some letters brushed with red pigment fall at the beginning of the left margin as well as within the text.

The book of hours was a beautifully constructed devotional book that could be as personalized as the patron wished as long as they could pay for it. The book played a key role in the lives of laymen during a time where there was a desire for personal pursuit of piety with some independence from the church. A book of hours could also be a symbol of status even as it became more accessible to the rising urban middle class. Part two will look at the skill and materials required to make such a beautiful work in fifteenth century Paris.