Central European manuscripts could be simply decorated with pen-and-ink drawings against colored backgrounds. No longer Romanesque in its stylization, but not yet fluid and elegant enough to be considered Gothic, the decoration here is typical of art produced around the year 1200.

Hours for Premonstratensian use, Bohemia, probably the Monastery of Luka, near Znaim, c. 1215, probably for Princess Agnes of Bohemia (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.739, f. 149r).

The colophon states that the ”author and scribe of this work is named Antonius van Damme, an old resident of Bruges, the year 1531.” Firmly dated, this manuscript is an anchor for the work of its illuminator, Simon Bening. The small but very fine pictures were created about fifteen years after the artist painted the Da Costa Hours. Bening's palette has become subtler, his compositions more complex, and his landscapes rendered with more attention to atmospheric conditions.

Hours for Rome use, Belgium, Bruges, dated 1531 (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.451, ff. 103v and 126v).

Made in Bruges for export by one of the best hands of the Masters of the Gold Scrolls (named for the gold scrolls in the background of many of their miniatures), the present manuscript remained in the same family in the Auvergne from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries (notes in the calendar date from 1575 to 1973).

Villeneuve Hours for Bruges use, Belgium, Bruges, c. 1425-50 (Private Collection, f. 15v).

Made to order for Philippot of Nanterre, the wife of Thierry de la Cloche, the Seigneur of Roquoncourt, the Nanterre Hours is illustrated by artists from the Amiens workshop of Raoul d’Ailly. The workshop takes its name from the eponymous Hours of Raoul d’Ailly, executed for the Vidame of Amiens.

Hours of Philippot de Nanterre for Amiens use, France, Amiens, c. 1420 (Private Collection, f. 155).

Unfinished Books of Hours are rather rare. Such codices offer fascinating insights into the physical production of the hand-made book. The localized patronage of Fiacre in the Parisian region (his relics are in Meaux) helps situate the production of the manuscript there, which its miniatures related to the Paris workshop of the Master of Jacques de Besançon confirm.

Hours, for Rome use, France, Paris (?), c. 1470 (Les Enluminures, f. 229).

This artist takes his name from a Book of Hours now in Chicago that contains early ownership notes by the English family Mildmaye (Newberry Library, MS 35), which is one of the manuscripts surrounded, like this one, with English borders. Perhaps an English decorator worked in Bruges or, alternatively, the manuscript was finished in London.

Peckover Hours for Sarum use, Belgium, Bruges, c. 1455-60 (Private Collection, f. 26v).

In the miniature, Ursula offers her retinue protection beneath the folds of her cloak. She holds arrows, the instruments of their martyrdom. The picture is executed in a delicate grisaille with touches of gold, and the border is quite restrained with leaves in a pale green and flowers composed of small petals of blue or old rose. Toward the middle of the fifteenth century, a group of artists in the city of Delft specialized in such grisaille miniatures. They were usually painted and sold as single leaves that could be inserted into Books of Hours.

Hours for Windesheim use, The Netherlands, Delft, c. 1440 (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.349, f. 181v).

The illuminator Jean Pichore (fl. 1502-1520) was responsible for this stunning miniature. His sophisticated thoroughly Renaissance style was clearly influenced by the School of Tours, but he headed one of the largest and most productive workshops in Paris, which specialized not only in illumination, but also collaborated in the design of metalcuts for Horae in the Parisian printing industry.

Astor-Aubéry de Frawenberg Hours for Toul use, France, likely Paris, c. 1500-1520 (Private Collection).