Jesus healing a man who has epilepsy
drawn from: "Les très riches Heures du Duc de Berry"

The first books of hours were made in the 12th century, following the Psalters. In them were prayers for different times of the day. They were intended for use by lay people and were not under the influence of the Church.

These books, which were full of miniature paintings, were most popular in the 15th century, and the paintings took on a greater significance then being simply illustrations of the prayers, as the person commissioning the books could ask the artist to include calendars, or scenes from work and court life.

In France, workshops sprang up which produced these books in series. In addition to the monastery writing rooms and the secular ateliers, the nobility took on a kind of patronage over these works. Princes and dukes called artists from different countries to their courts and appointed them to make books of hours according to their wishes.

Jesus healing a man who has epilepsy
drawn from: "Les très riches Heures du Duc de Berry"

One of these great patrons was Duke Jean de Berry of Burgundy, a passionate collector of art. He alone commissioned over fifty works: bibles, missals, books of hours, Psalters and breviaries. He summoned the brothers Paul, Hans and Hermann von Limburg ("The Brothers of Limburg") to his court, and in 1500 one of the most beautiful books of hours was made, the "Très riches Heures du Duc de Berry"!

The contrast between the sick boy, dressed in a ragged, grey cloak, and the rest of the people, who are sumptuously dressed in red, blue and gold, is surprising, but shows the reality of the times when sick or handicapped people lived in "social poverty", forced to live a life apart from the "perfect, happy world" of the rest of society.

The discrepancy between sickness and suffering on the one hand and "normal" life on the other is graphically portrayed in this picture.