The Book of Hours of Leonor de la Vega is a codex of

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

on vellum by

Willem Vrelant Willem Vrelant (died c. 1481/1482) was a Dutch book illuminator. Life He is first registered in 1449, when an illuminator from Vreeland named ''Willem Backer'' obtained citizenship of Utrecht.Thomas Kren, Scot McKendrick, Illuminating the Renai ...

. It is in the

National Library of Spain National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

(Vitr.24-2). The pages are 19 x 13 centimeters in size.

History

The author,

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

, was born in 1410 and died in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

in 1481. He was a student of

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( , ; – July 9, 1441) was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. Ac ...

, and was active in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

, where this

book of hours The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscrip ...

was made, between 1465 and 1470. The manuscript was sent in 1498 as a gift from the ambassador of Spain in Flanders, Diego Ramirez de Villaescusa, to the Spanish ambassador in Rome, Garcilaso de la Vega, the father of the poet Garcilaso de la Vega. The book of hours was named for the poet's sister, Leonor de la Vega, who inherited the

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

from her brother.

Description

The manuscript presents a goatskin binding, and is made on

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...

folios The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book mad ...

(202), 19 x 13 cm in size, for a total of 404 pages. A calendar without artwork contrasts with the many illustrations of the different chapters: the Hours of the Virgin, Hours of the Cross, and Hours of the Holy Spirit, with full-page miniatures and borders full of plants, monsters or satirical scenes, with applied

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

on many illustrations and much of the lettering.

References

Sources

* {{Cite book , last=Durrieu , first=P. , title=Manuscrits d'Espagne remarquables par leur peintures et par la beauté de leur exécution. nº 24 (París) , year=1893

External links

Vista completa del Llibru de les Hores dde Leonor de la Vega digitalizado na Biblioteca Nacional d'España

Hours of the Virgin (Met)
15th-century illuminated manuscripts Leonor de la Vega Devotional literature