Book of hours, „prayer book of Lodovico Gonzaga”

The book of hours was the prayer book of the medieval lay person, for private devotion, and used mainly by women. It was based on the breviary but, not being bound by liturgical prescriptions, was more varied. Apart from some permanent feasts, it did not strictly follow the order of feasts of the church year. It took its name from the old Roman division of the day, because prayers had to be observed every three hours from the start of the day. The Book of Hours in the Museum of Applied Arts is divided into the Calendar, the hymn to Mary, the office of the Holy Spirit, the death office, the seven repentance psalms and the litany of All Saints. Its decoration consists of four full-page miniatures – the Annunciation, the Coronation of Mary at the beginning of the hymn to Mary, the Fall at the begin ning of the office of the dead and a scene from the legend of the three living and three dead, at the beginning of the text. In the Calendar, there is a representation of activity typical of the month and rich marginal adornment, and there are coloured initials at the start of each prayer hour. Ornately painted prayer books were produced for the purpose of ostentation, displaying the wealth and good taste of their owners. In this case, the family coats of arms were painted in later, proving that it was not made to individual order. It was therefore bought ready-made, almost certainly after the marriage between Lodovico Gonzaga (1414–1478) and Barbara von Hohenzollern (1423–1481) in 1433. According to Edith Hoffmann, arguing on style-criticism grounds and biographical data for Lodovico Gonzaga, the Book of Hours was made between 1469 and 1478 in the Florentine miniature workshop of Francesco d’Antonio del Cherico (active between 1452 and 1484).