Cleveland Museum of Art

Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Adoration of the Magi (recto); Text (verso)

Boucicaut MasterLinkedCulture matchlcp-bf2a9c372195

Date: c. 1415
Medium: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Culture: France, Paris
Department: Medieval Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 133421

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Books of hours were devotional books popular in the Middle Ages. Meant for laypeople, or those not in the clergy, they were used at home and contained daily prayers as well as prayers for specific occasions, such as death, plague, warfare, travel, or bad weather. The heart of every book of hours is the Hours of the Virgin. With this set of prayers, the reader asked the Virgin Mary to intercede on their behalf. The Adoration of the Magi opens sext, the sixth hour of the day, or noon. The Coronation of the Virgin begins compline, which is before retiring for the evening. All books of hours contain the same basic sections and were highly customizable.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Provenance: -1955: Dr. Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1955-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH