Scrinium - Office of the Madonna (Offizium Der Madonna Cod. Vat. Lat. 3781)

An atelier, probably from Bruges, which, from the dates of commemoration of the saints, can be deduced from the Flemish area, specialized in small Books of Hours and architectural borders.
Here, around 1500, worked the anonymous Master who created the David scene of the famous Grimani Breviarium and also created the most beautiful illustrations of this Vatican book of hours.
The workmanship and style of some miniatures and borders establish a link with the illustrator Simone Marmione, to whom masterpieces of decorative art are attributed, and whom contemporaries considered a “Master of miniature”.
In the language of the Liturgy, the term Hours refers to the Divine Office, that is, the collection of prayers and hymns intended to be sung in choir or recited individually, today as in the past, by all clergy, secular and regular, at specific hours of the day and night. There are seven Hours of Prayer, the Liturgical Hours: Matins and Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Matins is before dawn, and Compline is after sunset. The sequence of chants and prayers distributed throughout those hours is called the cursus.
When in the Middle Ages the cult and devotion to Mary spread throughout the Church, alongside the Divine Office, a Marian Office appeared and spread, an Office of the Madonna recited especially by devout laypeople. From the Divine Office and the Office of the Madonna, recited together weekly, some excerpts began to be extracted and collected for the private devotion of the faithful. These collections formed the first nucleus of that private book that enjoyed widespread circulation, especially between the 14th and 16th centuries, accompanying the Psalter, which until then had been the principal choice for private devotion.

That prayer book took the name of Hours and also of Little Office. The Book of Hours, whose essential parts were the Office of Our Lady, the Penitential Psalms, the Office of the Dead, and the litanies, preceded by the Calendar, was never included by the Church among the liturgical books, although much of its content was derived from the Breviary. And yet it was from that book in particular that hymns and prayers emerged that enjoyed universal diffusion. Suffice it to think of the Salve Regina, the Stabat Mater, the Rosary, derived from the notable number of Hail Marys the Office contained, and even the midday Angelus Domini.

The transaction takes place with maximum security for both the seller and the buyer. We take care of the conformity (provenance, authenticity, state of conservation) of the work and handle the shipping.
Returns are possible no later than 14 days after receiving the order.