Summerfield C65: A Hybrid Self

Summerfield C65: A Hybrid Self

These folios and their aesthetics reveal the intersection between public and private spaces. Printed on vellum for book publisher Germain Hardouyn during the sixteenth century, this Book of Hours also enters a common space between manuscript and print, as David McKitterick suggested. Printed books were cheaper than manuscripts, and they often emulated manuscripts to anticipate the future owners' taste by including ruling, painted initials, and even painted illuminations. It is known that the seventeen full color illustrations, as well as most of the smaller cut images, were painted after the book was printed, and probably after it was purchased. The imitation of a manuscript aesthetic in a sixteenth-century printed Book of Hours enhanced the individual solitary devotion of its secular owner.

Summerfield C65

Spencer Research Library Special Collections, University of Kansas

c. 1505

Book of Hours

Spencer Research Library Special Collections, Summerfield C65, fols. e_iv–e_iir, o_iiv–o_iiir

Ink on vellum, printed Book of Hours