Book of Hours Leaf

Book of Hours Leaf

French (Paris), early 16th 

Probably Paris. Fol. c1r: Text page

Probably printed by Phillippe Pigouchet (French publisher and printer, active 1488-1518) for Simon Vostre (French printer, active 15th century)

Mount Angel Abbey Library, Ms 83

Diebold, William. The Illustrated Book in the Age of Printing: Books and Manuscripts from Oregon Collections. Portland, OR: Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, 1993, p. 12-13 - Quoted with permission

Although the program of decoration in printed Books of Hours tended to follow traditions already established by manuscripts, the printed Books are remarkable for the number of illustrations they contain. Every page in number 29 [refers to exhibit from which this text was a catalog entry], for example, has fully illustrated borders. The reproductive nature of printing meant that, once wood blocks had been cut and were owned by a printer or publisher, they could be used again and again with no additional cost. Thus, many of die same blocks are used in both numbers 29 and number 30, even though the actual text of the pages on display differs. No manuscript Book of Hours, no matter how sumptuous, had this wealth of decoration.

Printing raised the stakes of how densely a book could be illustrated; manuscript makers tried hard to respond. Number 12, a manuscript contemporary with these printed Books of Hours, has an exceptionally lavish program of illustrations, even though there is no sign that it was made for a particularly elevated patron. Rather, the large number of miniatures is probably an attempt to compete with the proliferation of images brought about by printing. In the page on display the unusual two-tier format, with the scene of David killing Goliath in the lower register, may have been inspired by the small scenes which fill the margins of printed books of hours such as numbers 29 and 30.