Elizabeth of York's Book of Hours (Folger STC 15889)
Horae ad usum Sarum (Paris, Philippe Pigouchet, 1498)
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
A printed Book of Hours, use of Sarum, produced in Paris by Philippe Pigouchet in 1498 and now held at the Folger Shakespeare Library (STC 15889), inscribed by Elizabeth of York in her own hand: 'Madam j pray yow Remember me in yowr good prayers yowr mastras Elysabeth R.' This inscription is direct documented evidence of the first Tudor queen using a printed Sarum Hours for personal devotion and as an instrument of court piety. The note, addressed to a gentlewoman requesting her intercessions, illuminates how such books functioned simultaneously as personal prayer manuals and nodes within a network of intercessory devotion among the women of the early Tudor court.
Why it still matters
The printed Sarum Hours remains a template for structured daily Catholic and Anglo-Catholic prayer; this copy demonstrates how the book served both as a private devotional tool and as a gift of grace exchanged between women of the court.
Kept alongside
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.
Beaufort Hours (Beaufort/Beauchamp Hours)
Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis (Beaufort Hours)
The Beaufort Hours (British Library, Royal MS 2 A.XVIII) was made c. 1430–1443 and first owned by Margaret Beauchamp (c. 1410–1482), Duchess of Somerset, wife of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset. It passed to her daughter Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509), mother of Henry VII, who used it as her primary private devotional book throughout her adult life. Margaret Beaufort's handwritten Latin prayer followed by the English inscription 'This prier foloweg is for the king' confirms its use as an intercessory instrument for the Tudor dynasty, and she used its calendar to record major dynastic events including Henry VII's birth. The manuscript contains Hours of the Virgin, Office of the Dead, Penitential Psalms, suffrages, and a litany.
Lady Margaret Beaufort's Book of Hours (MS N.24, St John's College Cambridge)
Horae ad usum Coutances
A French illuminated Book of Hours, use of Coutances (MS N.24), now in the Old Library of St John's College Cambridge, which Lady Margaret Beaufort owned and used for personal devotion throughout her life. Surviving portraits of Margaret depict her kneeling before this very manuscript open on a lectern. The illuminations are by the Fastolf Master, active c. 1415–1450, with gold-leaf borders interspersed with fruit and flowers; Margaret later inscribed the book to Lady Anne Shirley, and it is also known as the Shirley Book of Hours. As a surviving object of royal private devotion rather than a text for circulation, it bears witness to the daily prayer rhythms of the most powerful woman of early Tudor England.