The Contents in Books of Hours Reconsidered: A Case Study

In this dissertation, I analyze and respond to the notions of so-called “standard” and “accessory” contents that scholars have used to describe and classify the contents of Books of Hours. After outlining previous definitions and inconsistencies of the term “standard contents” with regard to Books of Hours, I propose a path forward to circumvent the challenge of analyzing books that were popular for multiple centuries. Specifically, I argue for an approach of units that includes the four components—spiritual needs, language, materiality, and subgenre—to help explain the individuality of each Book of Hours. Using evidence from relevant manuscripts in Special Collections at the University of Virginia, I demonstrate that the “standard” contents (usually the Calendar, the Hours of the Virgin, the Penitential Psalms, the Litany, the Suffrages, and the Office of the Dead) contain both uniformity and variation. Because of this variability, the idea of “standard” texts tends to break down. While scholars do not dismiss “accessory” texts wholesale, they do tend to treat them as less important than other texts found in Books of Hours. To show how my approach can serve as a tool for understanding a popular unit of vernacular texts—the Fifteen Joys of the Virgin and the Prayer of the Seven Requests—I anchor my discussion in the contents of Charlottesville MMS W. In my analysis, I use three additional medieval manuscripts—two fragments of Books of Hours (Walters 91 and Morgan M.947) and a more complete Book of Hours (Charlottesville MMS O)—to explore how the interrelated components of my units approach apply to the so-called accessory texts. My aim is to use my units approach as a framework for better understanding the contents in Books of Hours without the use of a hierarchy. Finally, one of my principal aims is to bring attention to the oftentimes understudied contents such as the single prayers found frequently in Books of Hours. Focusing on the Prayer of the Seven Requests allows me to demonstrate that these single prayers are an integral part of the contents in Books of Hours.