Books of Hours are the most famous and enchanting illuminated manuscripts of the late Middle Ages. They were private prayer books, owned by ordinary people as well as kings and princes, and they are often exquisitely illustrated. The lecture will looks at what is in a Book of Hours and how they were actually used. It will show how we can date and localise a manuscript by details in the texts. It will consider how they were made and illuminated, who the artists were, and what they cost.
Biographical note: Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge , and formerly librarian there. Was responsible for all catalogues and sales of illuminated manuscripts at Sotheby's for twenty-five years until 2000. Has doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge, and has written well over a hundred books and major articles on medieval manuscripts, translated into numerous languages. Is probably the best-known expert on medieval manuscripts in the world, and has given public lectures extremely extensively in six continents. His book Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, published by Penguin, has been the number 1 best-seller in art history and won both the Duff Cooper Prize and the Wolfson History Prize in 2017.