Liber Horarum

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his small Book of Hours is relatively unknown but is nevertheless of some importance since it contains 15 full-page illuminations attributed to the Flemish master Gerard David (1460-1523). The most beautiful is the Virgin with Child at the beginning of the manuscript; this miniature has the same characteristics of altar pieces of the period and is attributed to David himself. Other illuminations also resemble altar pieces but include reproductions of other miniatures, based on designs by other distinguished illuminators of the Bruges school, such as the Master of the Dresden Book of Hours and the Master of Edward IV of England.

The rest of the illuminations give a unique glimpse of the working methods of the Flemish illuminators. Conserved in the Escorial Library, this Book of Hours is also of especial importance because it is one of a very small number of dated books of hours from the Ghent-Bruges school. Towards the end of the manuscript, a page bearing the date 1486 in the margin surrounding a miniature of St Lazarus, identifies this as one of the earliest productions of David's period in Bruges, which dates from 1484.

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