Browse Items (11 total)

The Office of the Dead, usually found at the end of a book of hours, is a collection of psalms, prayers, and readings from the Old and New Testaments that were meant to coach the dying and the living family through death. The Office of the Dead is…

The Seven Penitential Psalms were a standard feature of the book of hours. These psalms were traditionally thought to have been written by King David in order to repent his numerous transgressions against God. They formed part of the Jewish liturgy…

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Lauds continues the theme of pairing the beginning of the reader’s day with the early phases of the Life of Christ. The text of Lauds interweaves the story of Mary, pregnant with the Christ Child, with that of her cousin Elizabeth, who became…

The Hours of the Cross, which typically followed the Hours of the Virgin, was a short Office intended to focus the reader’s devotions on the Passion of Christ, through hymns and responses that focused on his suffering on the Cross. A depiction of…

This miniature opens the Gospel Lessons by depicting John the Evangelist on the island of Patmos writing his Gospel. This image, like others in the book of hours, helped a reader to navigate her way through the text. John begins the sequence, since…