BOOK OF HOURS - Leaf on vellum from a printed Book of Hours.

24 lines of printed text, surrounded by renaissance borders decorated with flowers, vases and religious scenes. From the press of the leading Parisian publisher and illuminator Germain Hardouyn, active from c.1500/1505 to 1539/1541.

Between the end of the fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century Paris was the principal center of production and trade for printed Books of Hours, which from a textual point of view followed the manuscript examples. Germain Hardouyn, together with his brother Gilles, printed almost exclusively Books of Hours, producing at least two or three editions per year. For special clients he produced handsome presentation copies of the Heures, printed on vellum and decorated with illuminations, like the copy offered here.
It closely resembles an illuminated manuscript: it is printed on vellum in Gothic type, with colophon but no title-page, illustrated with illuminated woodcuts, and decorated with numerous hand-painted initials and line endings. Hardouyn continued to produce illuminated copies of Hours even after other Parisian publishers had abandoned this production.