Religion and Devotion

Arguably the majority of manuscripts made in the Middle Ages served a religious or devotional function. It is telling that the top three of popular reads in the later medieval period were the Bible, Book of Hours, and Psalms. These were do-it-yourself manuals, in a sense, given that they showed how to live a good Christian life. Religious and devotional manuscripts survive in very large numbers from medieval monasteries, where they served a variety of purposes, from majestic manuscripts made for consultation in the library (sermons and glossed bibles, for example), to heavily-used copies available for general use in church and refectory. In the 14th and 15th centuries, religious and devotional manuscripts also became popular with private owners, many of whom lived in the cities. The Book of Hours, for example, provided private readers with an opportunity to regulate their devotional lives in the manner of monks and nuns: the books facilitated reading specific texts at specific hours of the day. The kind of books seen in this section often presents a somewhat predictable material design, in large part because the objects are affiliated to specific religious rituals, such as reading or singing out loud during the Mass. From the 13th century onwards, religious and devotional manuscripts also became available in the vernacular, for example in Middle Dutch. While these manuscripts were not used in the same settings as their Latin counterparts, they served the same purpose: to support devotional readers in their daily religious experience and help secure a heavenly afterlife.