Published more than 500 years ago, Books of Hours were medieval bestsellers. Religious books, with their devotional text, illuminated illustrations and decorative initial letters and borders, provided ordinary people with a comforting daily cycle of prayers, hymns and inspirational stories. They were designed to help them to navigate the stony road from birth to death and to live a good Christian life. Whether specially commissioned or mass-produced, such books were written on vellum (fine calfskin) and were fashionable accessories for the pious well-to-do. But, more than that, they were cherished daily companions, as the well-thumbed pages of the Book of Hours like this one from the Clifford Collection of the National Library of Australia shows.
