Description

Illustrated prayer books called books of hours remained popular with Europe’s elite well into the era of printing technology. This example belongs to a printed edition of five by the Parisian printer and engraver Guillaume Le Rouge, dating to 1510. Though printed on vellum (not paper), its 62 engraved pictures were hand-colored by an illuminator much like a traditional manuscript. By the mid-1480s, Paris was the center of production for books of hours with printed texts and engraved ornament. This book is therefore a hybrid fusing two distinct production methods—illumination and printing—representing the waning phase of the illuminator’s art prior to the complete transformation to printed books.