Ein flämisches Stundenbuch "secundum usum anglie"

Abstract

With its 21 preserved miniatures and scroll tendril decoration on each individual folio of the entire 177 pages, Manuscript No. 35 from the Renate König Collection, created in Flanders around 1430-1440, is particularly lavishly adorned. This is a Book of Hours, a collection of texts compiled for lay devotion. It includes the calendar with the Church festivals of the saints, the psalms, and hymns for the eight canonical hours of devotion over the course of a day (Divine Offices, Hours), the supplications to the Virgin Mary, to the saints (suffrages) and the sorrowful Christ as well as intercessory prayers for forgiveness and for the deceased. This collection and systematization of prayers addresses the layman of the late Middle Ages. However, for daily prayer, one often used plainer and simpler text material. The sumptuously illustrated codices are luxury products and often they come down to us in surprisingly well-preserved condition since they were opened only rarely.