First edition. A fine copy in lightly faded jacket. Published in connection with a 1997 exhibition at the Morgan Library. The Book of Hours per se originated in the 13th century when the Hours of the Virgin, the Calendar, the Litany, the Office of the Dead, and various other texts began to be separated out from the Psalter and produced separately for the use of lay people. It is among the most common types of late-Medieval/early Renaissance publications. This book features 107 numbered entries for color plates from eighty-three manuscript and seventeen printed works of the 13th through 16th centuries, interpersed throughout a running text dealing with the history of the Book of Hours and the contents of a typical Book (without, however, any description of the manuscript or printed work itself). With a section of "books for further reading," index, and an appendix of modern English translations of texts typically found in a Book of Hours.