Essential Reading List
Essential Reading List
Bibliography is in Author/date form and the complete references can be found under the heading "Extensive Bibliography".
Bibliography is in Author/date form and the complete references can be found under the heading "Extensive Bibliography".
Leroquais 1927 - Still the essential study on Books of Hours in general. The introduction is followed by the entries of the mss. in BnF, mostly French and Flemish.
Leroquais 1943 - A Supplement to the 3 volumes published in 1927.
Saenger 1985 - a crucial article on the reading habits and devotional practices revealed by the study of Books of Hours and their rubrics.
Wieck 1988 - The catalogue of an exhibition of the Books of hours in the WAG, mostly French and Flemish mss. The basic reading on texts and images in Books of Hours.
Manzari 1997 - a general introduction in the entry in the Enciclopedia dell'arte medievale.
Wieck 1997 - The catalogue of an exhibition of the Books of Hours in the PML. A useful introduction to Books of Hours.
Duffy 2006 - Books of Hours studied from the viewpoint of the marks and texts added to them during their use.
Books of Hours Reconsidered London 2013 - a vast collection of essays on Books of Hours from various areas and from different prespectives.
Garzelli 1980 - The earliest essay dedicated to a group of Italian Books of Hours, those made in Florence for the Medici. The author writes that 150 Books of Hours appear among the 2000 manuscripts examined in her corpus of manuscripts produced in Florence (1460-1530), the in preparation. She states that the peak in production seems to have been reached ca. 1490.
Manion 1984 - A short article with very important insights on the peculiarities of Italian Books of Hours, and in particular on the Lombard examples. Largely overlooked by later scholarship, it is now accessible online.
Manzari 1994 - An essay on three Books of Hours illuminated in late Gothic Lombardy by the Master of the Modena hours.
Stocks 1998 - An essay on the Office of the Passion in Italian Books of Hours, with a list of manuscripts, based on the corpus of Italian books of hours in the author's PhD (available online since 2014, see below: Stocks PhD 1998 [2014]).
Manzari 2003 - An essay establishing the corpus of Books of Hours and other devotional instruments produced in late Gothic Lombardy.
Manzari 2004a - A short essay with a first overview on Books of Hours produced in the different areas of the Italian peninsula.
Zanichelli 2006 - An essay on Books of Hours in Italy in the commentary to the facsimile of the Modena Hours.
Stocks 2007 - an article presenting a group of seven Books of hours with a particular illustrative programme in the Hours of the Virgin, comprising initials with busts of Saints. The author highlights the connections of Books of Hours with works of art used in the same context an ìd underlines their frequent use during the mass, shown by the frequent presence of devotional masses and prayers to be read during the mass.
Stocks 2009a - an article discussing the reception and performative use of Books of Hours and issues of mobility and temporality, with particular reference to the Adelaide Hours.
Manzari 2010a - An essay on the peculiarities in Italian Books of Hours in relation to the Franco-Flemish manuscripts, emphasizing the need to catalogue and classify the Italian production in a different way.
Manzari 2010b - An essay on the Book of Hours of Joanna I of Anjou.
Manzari 2012a - An essay on a Book of Hours from Padua and its links to the context of the Confraternities.
Manzari 2013 - A general essay on the Books of Hours produced in the Italian peninsula in the Middle Ages, with a list of manuscripts.
Stocks 2013 - An essay on the illustration of the Office of the Virgin in a group of Books of Hours from Northern Italy.
Alidori 2014 - An article on a late-thirteenth century Book of Hours illuminated by a Bolognese artist.
Manzari 2014a - An essay on Italian Books of Hours discussed by area of production.
Manzari 2014b - An essay discussing texts and images which appear both in Books of Hours and in other types of devotional manuscripts produced in Italy.
Dondi 2016 - A reference book on early printed Books of Hours.
Mariani Canova 2016 - An essay on Italian books of Hours in the commentary to the facsimile of the Book of hours of Francesco da Barberino.
Albiero 2018 - An article with the descriptions of eleven Italian Books of Hours in the Canonici collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Alidori 2020 - A book on Italian Books of Hours from the late thirteenth to the first half of the fourteenth century. The volume comprises the descriptions of the manuscripts discussed in the text (some unillustrated) and presenting four new examples dating from the late thirteenth to the early fourteenth. This volume, deriving from the author's PhD, is definitely a reference book on these topics, providing a wide documentation on the citation of Hours in the Statutes and documents pertaining to lay Confraternities. This is a very useful repertory and a much-needed instrument, nonetheless the importance of the role of Confraternities is emphasized excessively, in my opinion, while the essential role of the Mendicant orders, in particular the Franciscans remains out of focus.
Manzari 2023 - An article centred on the close connections between Books of Hours and other types of devotional books with which they shared textual contents and illustrations.
Morello 1988 - An exhibition devoted to the Books of Hours in the BAV, with many Italian manuscripts.
Cum picturis historiatum 2001 - An exhibition of the Books of Hours in the Bibl. Palatina in Parma, comprising many Italian examples.
Il Trionfo sul tempo 2002 - An exhibition of the illuminated manuscripts in the BANLC, with some Italian examples.
Alidori PHD 2018 - not yet available online: the book published in 2020 is based in the PhD dissertation.
Stocks PHD 1998, now online [from 2014]: the author examines 42 manuscripts dating from the late 13th century to 1425 ca., although 3 are not illuminated and 3 cannot be considered Books of Hours. This, however, is the first comprehensive study of Italian Book of Hours and a very useful instrument now available online. Nonetheless, not all of those here considered Books of hours are fall in the classification proposed in this Website (the Supplicationes Variae BML, Plut. 25.3 , BAV, Borg. lat. 355 and BAV, Vat. lat. 4363) and not all the suggested dates and localizations are here accepted (see Manzari 2014b).