Book of Hours of Engelbert of Nassau
Getijdenboek van Engelbert van Nassau
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
Illuminated by the Master of Mary of Burgundy for Engelbert II of Nassau — count of Nassau, lord of Breda, and leader of the Burgundian Privy Council — this Flemish Book of Hours (Bodleian Library MSS Douce 219–220) later passed to Philip the Fair (son of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian of Austria) as confirmed by the addition of Philip's coat of arms over Engelbert's. Written by the expert calligrapher Nicolas Spierinc, it exemplifies the Dominican-rite Book of Hours at the pinnacle of Ghent-Bruges illumination. Its passage from Burgundian court nobility directly to the heir of the Holy Roman Empire documents how Books of Hours cemented aristocratic relationships and transmitted devotional culture across dynastic lines. It remains one of the finest surviving witnesses to the Dominican Use of the canonical hours.
Why it still matters
The Dominican-rite structure of this manuscript's Hours offers a slightly different ordering of the canonical hours from the Roman use, showing that the Book of Hours tradition is flexible across liturgical rites; practitioners today can adapt any approved rite — including the Dominican — for structured daily lay prayer.
Kept alongside
Psalter (for the Education of Giovanni de' Medici)
The documented use of the Latin Psalter as the basis of young Giovanni de' Medici's religious instruction by his mother Clarice Orsini is one of the most precisely attested Medici devotional education episodes. When Poliziano attempted to teach the Medici boys using Homer and classical authors, Clarice expelled him from the villa at Cafaggiolo (c. 1479) and substituted the Latin Psalter, insisting on traditional Catholic instruction. Giovanni later became Pope Leo X, giving the episode retrospective significance; it is documented through Poliziano's own letters and subsequent Renaissance scholarship. The underlying text — the Psalter itself — was the universal prayer book of medieval and Renaissance Christendom and carries the highest possible devotional relevance independent of this particular episode.
English Primer (The Prymer)
Prymer or Lay Folks' Prayer Book
The English Primer ('Prymer') was the standard lay devotional book in England from the 14th to 16th centuries, used by children and adults alike to learn both literacy and prayer. Beginning as a first reading book combining the alphabet, Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Creed, it grew to include the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Seven Penitential Psalms, the Fifteen Gradual Psalms, the Litany of the Saints, and the Office of the Dead. Chaucer's reference in the Prioress's Tale (c. 1386) to a seven-year-old boy learning his 'primer' confirms its role in children's formation, and Eleanor of Castile purchased 'seven primers' in Cambridge in 1289 for royal household use. The royal culmination was Henry VIII's King's Primer (1545), principally compiled by Archbishop Cranmer and prescribed by royal proclamation as the only permitted primer in England.
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Commissioned c. 1412 by Jean de France, Duc de Berry — son of King John II and brother of Charles V — this is the supreme surviving example of Valois private devotion in manuscript form. It contains the canonical hours structured around the Hours of the Virgin, Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Ghost, Penitential Psalms, Office of the Dead, and additional offices and masses, all framed by the famous calendar illuminations depicting the labours of the months. The duke used it for daily private prayer in his châteaux, and it was left unfinished at his death in 1416, completed only in 1485–1489 by Jean Colombe for Charles I of Savoy. Its unmatched luxury simultaneously signals sincere personal piety and the Valois use of devotional objects as instruments of dynastic prestige.