Late medieval and early modern Europe experienced growth in its population, its literacy, and its prosperity, thus influencing the devotional lives of many Christians on the continent. A number of events contributed to these factors, including the end of the Black Death, the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, and the end of the Hundred Years’ War being among them. The beginning of the use of the printing press initiated a somewhat slow technological revolution that, in turn, influenced the many reformations. Add to these very influential factors the arrival and growth of humanism, with its emphasis on textual examination and the growth of art in every conceivable form in most every corner in Europe, and one must admit that Virginia Reinburg has chosen two very active, influential, and imaginative centuries in which to pursue the examination of devotion. In Spain and France, those who could read, whether it be their own vulgar tongue or Latin, were not satisfied with the more mundane forms of devotional life, such as attendance at mass, confession, or any prescribed yet occasional forms of piety. There arose new forms of literature such as the autobiography, spiritual exercises, saint's lives, books of penance, guides for spirituality, missals, and of course as here, books of hours. This period had much to choose for the Christian seeking to deepen her or his experience. These guides, once obtained, were immediate and available whenever the owner desired to consult them, as opposed to church life, which was ordered but not often immediately available.

Reinburg identifies her thesis quickly, simply, and briefly: “this is a study of the book of hours in the time and place of its greatest popularity: France from the late fourteenth to the early seventeenth century” (1). And this is exactly what she accomplishes in this marvelous work—and much more. She then provides the foundation for this: “in this book I offer a new lexicon for the activity of prayer in this era. Here, two ideas are key: “prayer was speech and prayer was rite” (4). On the next several pages, she establishes cautious parameters in which she worked. These include a brief study of the rites of prayer, an “archive” of prayer, literacy, authority, and its relationship to liturgy. The introduction concludes with a description of the twofold division of the methodology of the book. On these pages, she discusses how she approached the books of hours as though they were “artifacts.” By this she intended to “shed light on its makers and users” (8). Reinburg also describes her methodology for each of the two parts of the book. Part 1 is “A Social History of the Book of Hours” (13). This includes a brief study of many aspects of the medieval book in general as well as books of hours in particular. She states, “neither commercial forces nor religious institutions made the book of hours what it was.” (15). Her point here is that each book of hours had meaning to each one of those who printed it, or copied it, bound it, sold it, and bought it. Later in part 2, she states, “Part II is an ethnography of prayer, or more precisely, an account of the practices of prayer archived in books of hours” (131). From her observations in part 1, Reinburg proceeds to situate prayer in its cultural context while maintaining a continued emphasis on the personal, individual impact of the book of hours on many of those who owned them.

To accomplish these goals, Reinburg makes observations of the contents of the books of hours, taking into account and synthesizing the work of others on particular aspects of her methods. For example, in the sub-division of part 1 entitled, “The Evolution of Hourly Prayer and the Book of Hours,” she notes that “the most important elements in the book of hours were offices. Most prominent was the hours of the Virgin” (17). There is much here that illuminates our understanding of buying, reading, annotating, and owning books of hours, and even books in general, in their cultural context in early modern France. Reinburg concludes part 1 by commending the book of hours as a book which “functioned as a prayer book and primer, . . . from linguistic practice to liturgical language, literacy, reading practices, and images” (127). In part 2, she demonstrates her methodology as influenced, but not controlled by such authors as Michel de Certeau, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Marcel Mauss, and Rudolf Otto. This might be a good place to interject that Reinburg has thoroughly documented every author wherever she has taken any concept to agree or disagree, and many authors by whom she may have been influenced. She has also consulted hundreds of books of hours and has included illustrations of dozens of them with in the book. Add to this that her “acknowledgments” section reads like a Who's Who of contemporary scholarship on Art History, European Religious History, and early modern European Studies in general and the reader can be assured that she is not only more than competent, she has an infinite pool of scholarship experience to draw upon. She also has synthesized an inter-disciplinary approach that is smooth in its transitions.

Reinburg has analyzed the book of hours and placed it well within its cultural context while maintaining an emphasis on the personal practices of the individuals associated with these books at every level of creation to ownership. She has shown their beauty (although my one suggestion would be to jump from illustrations to color plates) and the ways in which the owners used them to assist them in prayer. Her thesis was clear, her method sound, her argument demonstrated and—that thing we all seek to attain—a book critically sound and a joy to read.