Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, Cod. 470 is a 15th-century

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 ...

. It was made in a French-Burgundian

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes and ...

. It measures 131 by 89 mm and has 366 folios. The text is written in Textualis Gothic bookscript. There are twenty

grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...

miniature A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small version. It may refer to: * Portrait miniature, a miniature portrait painting * Miniature art, miniature painting, engraving and sculpture * Miniature (chess), a masterful chess game or probl ...

s within wide, decorated borders. (See illustration at right). There are also twenty-two pages with elaborate initials and borders which match the borders surrounding the miniatures. There are many other less elaborate decorated initials. The miniatures are the work of an unknown artist from the circle of Phillippe de Mazerolles. 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 ...

is still bound in its original binding of brown leather with stamped ornamentation.

References

*Bologna, Giulia, ''Illuminated Manuscripts: The Book before Gutenberg'', New York: Crescent Books 1988. {{DEFAULTSORT:Milan, Hours 15th-century books Illuminated books of hours