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Description: | Named for its 17th- to early 20th-century owners, the Salvin Hours is one of the largest and most richly decorated English books of hours. Its decoration, created by two artists, resembles contemporary wall paintings in the Oxford area, suggesting that it was made in a workshop there. Its original owner probably was a high-status person living in Lincoln because it also resembles 13th-century books of hours associated with that city. It lacks a calendar, which would have helped to locate its original place of use because it would have listed saints' feasts special to a particular place.
This page has prayers for the first hour of the day (matins) in the Hours of the Holy Spirit, a set of meditations included in some 13th-century English manuscripts. In place of the scenes from the life of Christ that it gives the Hours of the Virgin, the Salvin Hours depicts the lives of saints as the devotional focus here. Mostly they are scenes of martyrdom, like the beheading of St Paul. According to his story, he asked a female follower for her veil on the way to his execution. He tied it over his eyes as a blindfold, as shown in the picture. The subject has nothing to do with the content of the prayers, but presents a model of holiness to be identified with and imitate. | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Source: | Collect Britain | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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