Books of Hours are private prayerbooks of the late Middle Ages. They are probably the most famous of all medieval illuminated manuscripts, often painted by the finest artists of the time. The lecture looks at what a Book of Hours usually consists of, how and why such manuscripts were used, how they were made and illuminated, what they cost and how they have survived.
Christopher de Hamel is Donnelley Fellow Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was responsible for all catalogues and sales of illuminated manuscripts at Sotheby's for twenty-five years until 2000. He has doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge and two honorary doctorates, and has written well over a hundred books and major articles on medieval manuscripts, translated into numerous languages. He is probably the best-known expert on medieval manuscripts in the world, and has given public lectures extremely extensively in six continents. He is the author of the best-selling Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts.