10th centuries. While there was much variation in the makeup of these books, a nucleus
of items appeared in most: the calendar, a lesson from each of the four Gospels, the two
Marian prayers Obsecro te and O Intemerata, the Little Office, the penitential psalms,
short offices of the Holy Spirit and the Cross, the Office of the Dead, and a series of
“suffrages” (prayers to popular saints).
The book of hours allowed the devout member of the laity to follow a daily regimen of
prayer that was similar to that of the monks and clergy but much shorter and lacking in its
complex day-to-day variation. Books of hours sur vive in great numbers. While the more
lavishly illustrated examples—such as the Grandes Heures and the Très Riches Heures of
the Duke of Berry, the Heures de Catherine de Clèves, or the Grandes Heures de
Rohan—were owned by the nobility, members of the literate middle class had their own
more modestly decorated copies. The genre is of immense importance in the history of art
and in fact was the principal vehicle of late-medieval painting. France was preeminent in
this respect, particularly in the later 14th and earlier 15th centuries. Among the more
important illustrations generally found in books of hours are the portraits of the four
Evangelists, a series of eight scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary illustrating the Little
Office, the depiction of David in Prayer illustrating the penitential psalms, and a great
variety of depiction for the Office of the Dead.
James McKinnon
[See also: CALENDAR, LITURGICAL; DIVINE OFFICE; LITURGICAL BOOKS;
LITURGICAL YEAR]
Bishop, Edmund. “On the Origin of the Prymer.” In Liturgica Historica: Papers on the Liturgy and
Religious Life of the Western Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1918, pp. 211–37.
Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Leroquais, Victor. Les livres d’heures manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale. 2 vols. Paris:
Macon, 1927. Supplément. Paris: Macon, 1943.
Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. New York:
Braziller, 1988.
BORDEAUX
. Originally a Gallic settlement, Bordeaux (Gironde) became a prosperous commercial
center under Roman domination and the capital of Aquitania Secunda. Attracted by its
wealth, Visigoths, Muslims, and Vikings laid siege to it over the early centuries of the
Middle Ages. Around 630, King Dagobert made his brother Charibert subking for
Aquitaine, with Bordeaux as his capital. Muslim incursions from Spain in the course of
the 8th century effectively weakened the influence of Bordeaux in Aquitanian politics, in
favor of Poitiers farther to the north.
In 1137, the marriage of Eleanor, the only heir of Duke Guilhem IX of Aquitaine, to
the future King Louis VII of France was celebrated in Bordeaux. With her divorce and
subsequent marriage to Henry II Plantagenêt, Bordeaux and all of Aquitaine fell under
foreign dominance. It was during this period that Bordeaux red wine, which had been
introduced by the Romans, came to be especially appreciated by the Norman
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