Wild Goose Chase v.

1. What is a Book of Hours?

According to the Glasgow University Library Special Collections

Department website, a Book of Hours is a “compendium of prayers and
devotional texts designed to be used by ordinary people.” They were often
personalized for the individual or area for which they were created, but
contained the same general features.

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/dec2006.html

2. What is the Latin name for one?

The Glasgow University Library website suggests that the Latin name for a
Book of Hours is simply Horae, while the Latin name of the copy held at
UNCG’s Jackson Library is Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis.

3. I want to find an ORIGINAL, hand-written (not online) 15th c. Book of

Hours (manuscript) within 15 miles of where I live, in Greensboro, near
downtown. This cannot be a facsimile. Where can I find it?

Using WorldCat, I searched for “book of hours” and filtered the results by
“print books” and “date: earliest to latest.” This brought up the catalog
listing for the Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis: Saec. XVI, a book of hours
dating to 1500-1515 that can be found in the Jackson Library Special
Collections.

4. The one in 3 question shows up dated in the 16th century – but it’s really
the 15th century – the date in the record may be off by about 20-40 years.

5. It will contain two languages – what are they?

This particular book is written in Latin and French.

6. What “USE” is it? That is, for what particular city was it written?

This book of hours is believed to have been produced for the city of Paris.

7. Call number (shelf number)?

It’s call number is ND3363.A1 C38.

8. Who would be the best person for me to contact in order to read/or view
it? That is, if the book is in a special collection, who are the people who
handle the rare books…NOT an archivist.

While the website for the Jackson Library’s Martha Blakeney Hodges
Special Collections department encourages researchers to contact them to
schedule viewing appointments, the contact information is generic and
does not specify a particular staff member.

9. Can I bring an ink pen to take notes? What hours/days of the week, might
I physically look it over (in person).

The Hodges Reading Room policies and procedures do not allow ink pens
to be used near manuscripts, however pencils and paper are allowed for
note taking. The collection is available 9am-5pm, Monday through Friday.

10. Can you find any photos of the book online? Can you find one that is
similar? Hint: Try these (use the advanced search on DS) –

Digital Scriptorium
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/BANC/digitalscriptorium/advancedsearch.html
Corsair (Morgan) Online Look at the “Collections Online “ Listing.
http://www.themorgan.org/collection

Using DS’s advanced search to narrow search results for “book of hours” to
only listings including figurative decoration, I was able to locate listings
containing a number of photos of various books of hours and their
illuminations.

Using the Morgan’s database, and filtering results for “book of hours” by
“collection” listings, I was able to locate photos of particular illuminations
and other sections of books of hours.

11. What is the name of one of the best books in the world to learn more about
books of hours?

By examining the WorldCat results for the “book of hours” search, I was
able to locate the names of authors of works about books of hours. By
googling those names I was able to identify Roger S. Wieck, the curator of
the Morgan Library and Museum’s Department of Medieval and
Renaissance Manuscripts, believed to hold one of the largest collections of
Books of Hours in the US. His book, Painted Prayers: the book of hours in
medieval and renaissance art, is likely one of the best for learning more
about books of hours.