Author(s): NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA,

Gift

Published more than 500 years ago, Books of Hours were medieval bestsellers. Religious books, with their devotional text, illuminated illustrations and decorative initial letters and borders, provided ordinary people with a comforting daily cycle of prayers, hymns and inspirational stories. They were designed to help them to navigate the stony road from birth to death and to live a good Christian life. Whether specially commissioned or mass-produced, such books were written on vellum (fine calfskin) and were fashionable accessories for the pious well-to-do. But, more than that, they were cherished daily companions, as the well-thumbed pages of the Book of Hours like this one from the Clifford Collection of the National Library of Australia shows.