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Medieval Religious Texts of the Rare Book Room in Kent Library

This guide will provide students with an introduction to six early religious texts from the Charles Harrison Rare Book Collection.

Book of Hours, early 15th century

A breviary written in Latin and French on vellum in the early 15th century.  It contains scriptural readings and the rites for the Canonical Hours, which are “. . . certain portions of the day set apart by rule (canon) of the church for prayer and devotion.”  The book is comprised of 180 pages, including 10 with illustrations, and treats the theme of the Flight out of Egypt. Book of hours were the most common type of surviving illuminated manuscripts. This Book of Hours is mainly written in Latin but the calendar and rubrics are in French.

  • Bound in leather
  • Highly illuminated
  • Woodcut image of Christ carrying the cross added by past owner
  • An illumination was added to as well, unfortunately
  • Important entries are in red ink

Image 1

Front cover of Charles Harrison's book of hours. The leather binding with colored tooling (front and back covers) is not original to the text. 

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Image 2

The first part of the book of hours contains a calendar denoting feast days and various holidays celebrated by the Church.

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Image 3

This is one of the 10 illuminations in this book of hours. It depicts Mary kneeling in prayer. 

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