HORAE or BOOK of HOURS is a manuscript or printed book of prayers for private devotional use. The output of manuscript Horae during the 14th and 15th centuries particularly, must have been immense. The majority of printed examples derive from the years between 1490 and 1520 with Paris as the most active center of publication.
ILLUMINATED, ILLUMINATION is a general term meaning decorated by hand, whether in formal, floral, or historiated style, in gold and/or silver and/or colored paint. It is used of initially letters, single words, first lines or opening pages of (usually very early) printed books; but most often in manuscripts.
