Even in modern times the family Bible for many is a precious possession, not always primarily as a sacred object as much as a vital link with the past, recording births, baptisms, marriages and the deaths of succeeding generations. Often idiosyncrasies of handwriting, or a casual comment, can bring this past momentarily to life. In the medieval and early modern period, the book of hours, described as the biggest bestseller of its age, functioned in much the same way. The survival of more than 800 manuscripts of these Latin prayer books from the English Middle Ages and of thousands more from the age of print indicates their prevalence and popularity. Although mainly owned by well-off laity before the invention of printing, most families ‘aspiring to respectability’ possessed at least one in the more ‘democratic’ early sixteenth-century. In the course of his extensive research into late medieval religion and in an attempt to find clues to the beliefs and habits of individual lay folk, Eamon Duffy became aware of the book of hours as a rich resource not only on account of the record of personal data, but also for the prayers, portraits, recipes and other notes often inserted or added to fly-leaves and margins. In this copiously illustrated and beautifully presented book, Duffy offers a generous sampling of his findings after more than fifteen years of research.

Although primarily concerned with the devotional habits of the late medieval to early modern period, Duffy also provides useful background information on the history, development and makeup of the book of hours as material object. In the early period, the contents of the book of hours reflected the choices of those who had commissioned them, more often than not women. In the De Brailes Hours, dating from c. 1240 and probably the earliest surviving free-standing book of hours made for an English user, for instance, the repeated representation of a woman at prayer in the illuminated initials gives every indication, as Duffy suggests, that this book was made for a woman. Touching glimpses of intimate gestures of affection can be discovered, often in books of hours handed down in families, and Duffy points out how scholars have associated these books with developing privacy and interiority among the laity. More controversially perhaps, he also offers examples to show that ‘The boundaries between private and public, individual and corporate, are here permeable’ (p. 54). This is especially true when printed books of hours became available, and using the evidence of Tudor portraits, most notably Holbein's drawing of the More family in which everyone is actually holding the same book, Duffy points out how these printed books of hours also afforded the opportunity for communal recital.

The development of the book of hours is carefully traced into the post-Reformation era when material such as indulgence rubrics, miraculous promises, references to the pope and so forth were removed, and then through the Marian period when they were pruned of ‘reformist editorial intrusions’ (p. 150). With respect to deletions, very often found to be unsystematic, Duffy offers a salutary caution against giving them too much significance since in this (as is indeed true in the response of recusants, for example, to other areas of legislation) ‘even religious conservatives placed a high value on loyalty to the regime’ (p. 155). Finally, in the Elizabethan era the book of hours became increasingly alien and out of step with the evolving religious practices of the time, and surviving examples suggest that among Protestants they became ‘family record albums’ (p. 174). In this culture, devotional use seems to have been confined to recusant families. It is significant that no Catholic book of hours was produced for English use between 1558 and 1599, the year of the first printing of the bilingual edition of the Tridentine Primer. It is also noteworthy, and perhaps even surprising to discover, that the seminary priests, trained to reject pre- or non-Tridentine books, were cautious in the use of books of hours and thus perhaps as much responsible as Protestant clergy for the diminishing use of traditional books of hours.

Ad hoc glances at comments, prayers and other notations in prayer books bring this world of the past to life and more than justify Duffy's decision to use specific examples to offer insights into the spiritual and devotional preferences and preoccupations, rather than attempting a synthesis as such. The make-up and additions to the especially commissioned Hours of John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, show a more domestic and pious side to Shakespeare's ‘Warlike and martial Talbot’, while those of the mass-produced, hand-me-down copy that in the early sixteenth century came to Roberts family, the subject of chapter v, are just as revealing. Such glimpses, with the accompanying illustrations and Duffy's commentary, enrich this book. There is, however, a downside to the illustrations: the inclusion of clear reproductions allows the reader to check the transcriptions, and there are inaccuracies. On page 75, for example, the third line of the manuscript page reads: ‘Grant lord wit‘h’ mercy & medeful penance’; while the transcription in the caption reads: ‘Grant Lrd wyt verey and needful penaunce’. Given the eminence of the author – and of the Yale University Press – it surely could have fallen to a copy-editor to double check this mechanical aspect of things.