A Book of Centuries
Hey there, Head Alien here, just casually walking around with an almost-600-year-old book for Fridays at the Peel…
Okay, so this first image is technically of the gorgeous case that holds the actual almost-600-year-old book, but that’s part of the beauty and the experience too. In fact, open up the case and, at first glance, the contents do not perhaps appear immediately as pretty as its case, but the volume really is remarkable for its age.
Written, illuminated, and assembled in Belgium between 1430-1440 — or 583-593 years before the publication of this post — the Horae Beatae Virginis Mariae, a Flemish Book of Hours, stands out even within Bruce Peel Special Collections as a complete manuscript Book of Hours, not just a facsimile.
Moving the protective mylar out of the way for closer inspection, you can see that this book has lived a life, its mottled leather cover still showing some of its original polished shine in fragments across its surface.
But then inside, in a remarkable state of preservation, the steady writing, bright colour, and gilded highlights of handwritten and hand-illuminated pages, ink and gold on vellum from centuries ago.
It continues to amaze and thrill that books like this are not simply a container for its written and illustrated history, it is history embodied, an artifact, an object, an opportunity for us to hold and touch the very pages held and touched by fellow humans centuries ago.
This connection is, for me, part of the magic that is books.
Happy time travelling!
— Winston
