Cleveland Museum of Art

Book of Hours (Use of Rouen)

Date

c. 1470

Medium

ink, tempera, and gold on vellum

Culture

France, Rouen, 15th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In the late 1400s and early 1500s, Rouen, France, was an established and important center of book production. The city’s cathedral had a wealthy chapter that spent large sums of money to commission books and to maintain its extensive library. The stationers (sellers of writing supplies) and booksellers would have likely been concentrated in or near the cathedral precinct. This artist, named after a manuscript now in Geneva, Switzerland, was Rouen’s principal illuminator during the second half of the 1400s. The structure and artistic design are typical for manuscripts of the time. Books of hours were often produced as luxury objects in order to reflect the owner’s status, wealth, and taste.

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