File:Book of Hours, Binding, Walters Manuscript W.88, Upper board outside.jpg

English: Non-original, seventeenth-century brown morocco; front and back cover stamped with gilt armorial shield of Charles Emmanuel II, duke of Savoy, 1634-75, with collar of the Order of the Annunciation; gilt fillet frame with fleurons at corners; spine near-flat with gilt fleurons; gilt edges

This small Book of Hours is especially interesting for its profusion of humorous drolleries. Humans, animals, and hybrids are featured in the margins of each page of the book. The artists rendered in small scenes a variety of actions, like cooking, playing game, climbing, fishing, making music or moving the bodies in a dance. These drolleries amuse the faithful during his prayers, while showing scenes that work as metaphors of the soul fighting the vices. The original female owner seems to have been established in the diocese of Cambrai, judging from the use of the Office of the Dead. Several provenance episodes are evidenced by the book in the signatures on the leaves at the beginning and end of the manuscript. A priest in the sixteenth century wrote a message in code on fol. 1v asking to return to him the book if lost. Members of the ducal house of Savoy owned this book of prayer in the seventeenth century, as evidenced by the gilt armorial shield of Charles Emmanuel II (1634-75), duke of Savoy, stamped on the covers.

To explore fully digitized manuscripts with a virtual page-turning application, please visit Walters Ex Libris.