2-738-683 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Printed Book of Hours (Use of Rome), 1510. 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-coloured 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.