Book of Hours: Description of Contents (2)   

    Since the Hours themselves are the essential part of any Book of Hours, here are one or two more illustrations of this particular Book of Hours:

    Start of Prime (detail)          End of Compline (detail)            Start of Vespers

    After the Hours of the Virgin a Book of Hours will usually contain the Hours of the Cross and the Hours of the Holy Spirit (though sometimes these are incorporated into the Hours of the Virgin). These are much shorter than the Hours of the Virgin, and consist essentially of additional prayers, which could be used as a variant to the prayers given in the Hours of the Virgin. In this Book of Hours the Hours of the Virgin begin on leaf 16r and continue to leaf 52v (the numbering of the leaves was a much later addition, probably done in the 18th century, when the book was rebound). Additional prayers begin in middle of 52v and continue to the end of 56v. There is then, sad to relate, a missing page:

    The fact that a page is missing here can be seen in two ways. The first is that there is a break in the text; leaf 57 (on the right) starts in the middle of the first of the seven Penitential Psalms. This was the next major part of a typical Book of Hours. The previous page gives variant prayers for Compline, which should immediately precede the Penitential Psalms.

    The second sign that a page is missing is that the previous page (the one on the right) has stains of what was clearly a highly illuminated page (circled, above). An illuminated page, with a painted border, is what one would expect here, at the beginning of an important section. Thus, regrettably, this Book of Hours contains only six and a half of the seven Penitential Psalms (though the text itself is repeated in the Office for the Dead), and lacks the illuminated opening to this section of the book.
    The Penitential Psalms (which include the famous "De Profundis" - "Unto the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord") express the regret of the sinner and the cry for forgiveness, but were also believed to reduce the amount of time the dead would have to spend in Purgatory before they could go into Heaven.
    After the Penitential Psalms comes the Litany, preceded by the Kyrie Eleison: ("Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy"):
    The Litany of Saints is a long invocation to the saints, asking them to "pray for us"

("Ora pro nobis"). It covers some seven pages. Following the Litany of Saints comes the Litany of Petitions, things specially prayed for. First come the "Ab" ("from") petitions (such as "Ab omnii malo" - ["protect us] from all evil"), then the "Per" (through) petitions ("Per baptismum tuum" - "Through your baptism [deliver us]", etc.), and finally the "Ut" ("that") petitions ("Ut pacem nobis dones" - "That you may give us peace", etc.). The Litany ends with the Agnus Dei and another Kyrie Eleison.

      Following the Litany comes the Office of the Dead. This, too, is a very important part of a Book of Hours. It consists of prayers specially designed to relieve the suffering of souls in Purgatory, and to hasten their journey to Heaven. This is the subject of the second of the two paintings in the Book of Hours.