The
Connolly Book of Hours
The
Connolly Book of Hours is a masterpiece of medieval manuscript art owned by the
John J. Burns Library at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Illuminated by hand in France during the fifteenth century, this
devotional book marks the flourishing of a late medieval culture with a rising
need for prayer in the home and an increasing interest in art.
Books
of Hours, made largely for a burgeoning late medieval bourgeois class, were
popular prayer books used by the laity for a period of 250 years.
Les Heures, as they came to be known, were spiritual icons as well as
status symbols for their original owners and they contain a varied body of
prayers, gospel readings, and, of course, the Little Office of Our Lady, known
as the Hours of the Virgin. This varied content afforded the medieval artist a wide range
of subjects and abundant possibilities for decoration. The Connolly Book of Hours, which contains over
one-hundred-fifty masterfully rendered leaves, is an excellent example of these
devotional books which have often b
een dubbed “the medieval best seller.”
In
the first publication to bring the Connolly Book of Hours to the attention of
the public, Timothy M. Sullivan relates the fascinating story of how and in what
historical context illuminated manuscripts, like the Connolly Hours, were made
and used; Rebecca M. Valette considers several of the lesser known Latin prayers
used in the manuscript; Laurie Shepard presents the texts of the French
vernacular prayers. This volume
contains thirty-two color plates of the miniatures from this delicately painted
medieval prayer book, accompanied by reflections by members of the Boston
College community on the personal meaning of these brilliantly rendered
illuminations.
For information on purchasing Reflections on the Connolly Book of Hours, please visit the BC Bookstore or contact us at jonesgh@bc.edu