The Hastings Hours

The Hastings Hours by Janet Backhouse. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780764900020.

The medieval Book of Hours was a richly decorated manual of private devotion comprised of a calendar of saints’ days and eight short services in honor of the Virgin Mary. The Hastings Hours is one of the finest of these to have survived. Intimate in scale and richly decorated with miniatures from the life of Christ and of the saints, it was made in the Netherlands by expert craftsmen during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. In this beautifully illustrated introduction to the manuscript, twenty-five of the surviving thirty-two large miniatures are reproduced--close to their actual size--along with many decorative borders and details. An essay by Janet Backhouse explores this outstanding achievement of Renaissance Flemish illumination.