Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art

by Roger S. Wieck

This book features 107 of the finest examples of illuminated pages from medieval and Renaissance Books of Hours. Roger Wieck's comprehensive text introduces the Book of Hours--a "bestseller" for three hundred years--to the general reader, discussing its iconography, the artists who illuminated this genre, and its role as a religious text in the lives of its owners. As a collection of both stirring words and inspiring images, the Book of Hours thus comprised a series of "painted prayers."

Genres: Art, Medieval, Art History, History

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Roger S. Wieck is the Melvin R. Seiden Curator and Department Head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. He has also held curatorial positions at the Walters Art Museum and the Houghton Library of Harvard University.

Reviews

[Tracy]

A beautiful book that explains each of the sections of medieval horae and then provides numerous full-color illustrations from horae that are in the Getty collection. The descriptions provide a nice entry into understanding books of hours.

[Lauren]

Graduate textbook for a seminar on rare books, looking at illuminated manuscripts and medieval texts specifically.