Book of Hours, Use of Paris
1508
Medium
Woodcut and letterpress in black with brush and gouache, and pen and ink on vellum (discolored at edges), in eighteenth-century full red goatskin, sewn on raised bands, with Cambridge-style gold tooling, rolled edges in gold, gold stamped spine decoration, hand-sewn silk headbands, and marbled endsheets
Dimensions
22.6 × 30 cm (8 15/16 × 11 13/16 in.)
Classification
book
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
53311
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Books of hours printed on vellum capitalized on the desirability of more expensive illuminated manuscripts. The coloring of this example is limited to blue and red in the initials, while its full-page woodcuts, such as this Nativity, help organize the book’s religious content, including the devotional calendar. Simon Vostre reprinted the metalcut borders from his earlier printed books of hours opposite woodcuts from Vostre’s Grandes Heures, now attributed to Jean Pichore. The cutting of the Pich...