Fragmented Hours: The Biography of a Printed Devo:onal Book by Thielman Kerver

: As the most richly illustrated and widely-owned texts of the late medieval and early modern eras, books of hours are essen:al to the study of art, religion, and the history of the book. Fragmented and altered books, while perhaps less coveted, are of par:cular value for what they may reveal of book owners and the changing meanings and uses of devo:onal texts and images over more than ﬁve centuries. This paper explores the compelling biography of a book of hours in the University of Florida Library that has undergone such extensive altera:on prior to its acquisi:on in 1989 that cataloguers could not iden:fy the printer and edi:on, leaving the book’s many disloca:ons, redac:ons, and annota:ons unexplored. Engaging with scholarship on the social history of books of hours, I iden:fy the fragmented book as possibly the sole surviving copy of an edi:on produced by Thielman Kerver in Paris around 1510 and reconstruct its missing contents through comparison with relevant edi:ons. Next, I examine the book’s complex web of redac:ons, erasures, and annota:ons in the context of sixteenth-century religious reform before turning to the book’s disloca:ons and the spolia:on of images in the context of nineteenth and twen:eth-century collec:ng trends.

understanding its biography as an object and its readers' social, religious, and cultural a`tudes. 2 By closely examining the origins, materials, and physical changes made to the Smathers Hours by its readers, I iden:fy the University of Florida's book of hours as an edi:on produced in Paris by early printer Thielman Kerver,  most likely on April 5, 1511.With the book's origin established, I argue that prior to its fragmenta:on as an art object, the Smathers Hours readers conformed the prayerbook to changing Protestant a`tudes.
The book's fragile structure, disloca:ons in pages and text, and the lack of informa:on on provenance prior to its acquisi:on by the University of Florida have complicated the inves:ga:on of the Smathers Hours.In its current condi:on, the prayerbook contains sixty-four vellum leaves loosely aYached to a once intricately embossed, though now cracked, and likely not original, leather cover. 3The loss of nearly half of the book's pages has rendered the binding compromised and in danger of coming undone.Of the remaining leaves, more than half contain dele:ons to the body text of the offices, prayers, and areas of the framed commentary in the illustra:ve border cycles, resul:ng in interrup:ons in the book's structure [Figure 1].The dele:ons made to the pages of the Smathers Hours appear in two forms: first, erasure by the physical scraping away of text from the vellum page, and second, redac:on by crossing through text with lines of ink.In certain areas of the book, en:re prayers are deleted; in others, the dele:ons are fragmented and inconsistent.Further adding to this complexity are lacunae from the removal of painted details and handwriYen annota:ons in the page margins and body text [Figure 2].The only evidence of the prayerbook's prior life is an apparent early 20 th -century sales catalogue entry, printed in German and adhered to the book's back inner cover. 4This lack of prior knowledge of the book's origin and provenance, combined with the complica:ons caused by layers of extensive damage, has made studying this prayerbook challenging, requiring an approach that considers these complexi:es.
As a damaged devo:onal object that has spent much of its existence in the hands of readers, the Smathers Hours is a specific "thing" with unique religious, social, and cultural contexts and purposes requiring methodologies tailored to books of hours."Biographies of things can make salient what might otherwise remain obscure." 5 The layers of disfigurement contained within the prayerbook make it an ideal case study for the biography of the book as an object which considers the crea:on, life, and aSerlife of an object, recognizing that much like living beings, objects have inherent biographical possibili:es. 6In this study, I draw upon Virginia Reinburg's research on the social history of French books of hours-that of "the book of hours as an ar:fact-a material object which, if carefully interpreted, can shed light on its makers and users." 7As the most widely-owned and richly illustrated devo:onal texts of the late medieval and early modern eras, books of hours provide a unique opportunity to study book owners' changing a`tudes towards religion and art over the ensuing centuries.For over two hundred years, no singular en:ty controlled its content and produc:on, while numerous hands contributed to craSing the devo:onal book-commercially, spiritually, and personally.The contents of books of hours are as varied as their owners, with the central feature of each prayerbook being the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a 2 Virginia Reinburg, French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400-1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). 3The truncated design on the binding suggests that it was constructed from covers that were cut down and repurposed. 4See note 45 for a transla(on of the descrip(on.collec:on of psalms, hymns, and prayers honoring Mary as the Virgin Mother of God.Accompanying the Hours are essen:al secondary and accessory elements that were oSen unique to the reader, including elaborate illustra:ons and embellishments to mark the openings of the book's essen:al text and invite visual contempla:on of the book's message. 8Through an inves:ga:on of the origins and materials of books of hours and carefully considering the traces of evidence that readers leS of their use on the printed page, a portrait of the book's owners begins to emerge.In the case of the Smathers Hours, these traces of use are apparent in the addi:on of handwriYen prayers, the dele:on of text, and the inten:onal removal of the opening illustra:ons from the book.As a book appreciated for its devo:onal text and images, the a`tudes of its readers toward religion and art are intrinsic to uncovering the life history of the Smathers Hours.
In this analysis, I approach the Smathers Hours at three pivotal moments in its biography.First, I examine its origins as an edi:on of a book of hours created by Thielman Kerver in Paris and propose a prin:ng date of April 5, 1511. 9By u:lizing the tools of analy:cal bibliography, a method ideally suited to understanding early print shop prac:ces and iden:fying damaged edi:ons, I reconstruct the essence of what is missing through comparisons of the damaged copy with similar French printed books of hours described and analyzed by rare book scholars Ina NeYekoven and Thierry Claerr. 10I next examine the nature and loca:on of the erasures and annota:ons made to the book through Eamon Duffy's scholarship on the addi:ons, removals, and erasures English laity made to Catholic prayerbooks, such as the Smathers Hours, in response to the poli:cal upheaval and changing sixteenth-century Protestant devo:onal norms. 11inally, aSer isola:ng and contextualizing these dele:ons, I discuss the fragmenta:on of the book as an object of art in the later phases of the book's life by the removal of the book's illustra:ons and ini:als vis-àvis nineteenth-and twen:eth-century art a`tudes and collec:ng trends discussed in research by Sandra Hindman and Christopher de Hamel. 12years combined. 13Thielman Kerver, an emigree from the area of Koblenz, leveraged typese`ng skills honed in German printshops and a later partnership in Paris with fellow German George Wolff to become a sworn bookseller of the University of Paris in 1501. 14By his death in 1522, he was fully enveloped in the Parisian print trade with an oeuvre that included over three hundred edi:ons of liturgical books, legal tracts, classical authors, and prayerbooks.Though with over one hundred and twenty-four known individual edi:ons and variants printed, books of hours were clearly where Kerver concentrated his efforts as a printer and publisher. 15In this compe::ve environment, Kerver dis:nguished his books of hours by leveraging unique materials, typography, and border illustra:ons to bring a semi-custom product to a growing middle-class audience.
The Smathers Hours is an example of a printed book of hours created for a growing audience of affluent middle-class laity eager to own devo:onal books with elegant materials.Kerver's prayerbooks appealed to lawyers, merchants, doctors, government officials, and others who coveted the rich hand-illuminated manuscripts made famous by the nobility, but perhaps with more "modest means." 16These books of hours featured a wide variety of printed devo:onal texts and images for the reader to contemplate and enjoy, along with the opportunity to appreciate custom details and decora:ons.A comparison of folio G3 verso of the Smathers Hours and Wing MS ZW 5351, a known Kerver edi:on printed in 1510 and held in the Newberry Library, Chicago, shows that while the Smathers Hours has yellowed with age and exhibits evidence of wear and water damage, elements of the book's previous refinement remain visible in the smooth vellum folio pages, the liquid gold illuminated ini:als painted on backgrounds of red and blue, and the variety of intricate wood and metal cut illustra:ons featuring the Apocalypse Cycle framing the printed text of the Advent Office of the Virgin [Figures 3-4].Adding to this luxurious effect are light red ink lines, scoring the page, and imita:ng the ruling of manuscript books. 17The reader would have pored over the book's An:qua and Gothic typesets printed in dual ink colors, an effect achieved by running the vellum pages through the hand-press twice, first with red ink and then again with black ink.The Smathers Hours and the Newberry Library edi:on display the array of bespoke details that a reader could request to adorn the pages of their printed books of hours.
The typography, illustra:ons, page layout of the Smathers Hours, and its contents, closely align with edi:ons printed by Thielman Kerver between 1506 and 1512, but especially those of April 5, 1511.In addi:on to luxury copies such as the Smathers Hours, Kerver offered copies at lower price points printed on less expensive paper without the delicate bespoke details, although no less visually appealing.An example of such a book is a copy of an edi:on printed on paper by Thielman Kerver on April 5, 1511, the only known exemplar is owned by 13 Reinburg, French Books of Hours, 37-41.tudes renaissantes 14 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014), 333-37. 15Claerr, Kerver Tome II, 102-04. 16Claerr, Kerver Tome I, 33. 17 Claerr, Kerver Tome I, Annexes XIV.
the An:quariat Bibermühle AG in Switzerland [Figure 5]. 18Typography was a dis:nguishing feature of Kerver's design, where the text and framed commentary served as opportuni:es to showcase his shop's An:qua and Gothic typesets. 19Folio G3 verso of Kerver's 1511 edi:on Bibermühle 60.2 and the Smathers Hours display Kerver's easier-to-read An:qua typeset size 15:79 in the body text of the Office of the Virgin and a Gothic Bastarda typeset in the Apocalypse border cycle frames. 20During his incunabula period, Kerver began experimen:ng with the dis:nc:ve An:qua typeset, created with his associate Georges Wolff.The use of the typeset in books on his behalf can be traced to 1503. 21Folio G3 verso also illustrates how Kerver deploys varying typesets and ink as counterpoints to one another, with the Gothic typeset in red ink contras:ng with the main body text of the Advent Office of the Virgin in An:qua typeset in black ink serving as both ornamenta:on and narra:on of the many border cycles featured within the book.Here, Kerver's Gothic text serves a didac:c func:on by narra:ng the Apocalypse scenes and its biblical source [Figures 3-5].Kerver confined his An:qua typeset to those books of hours printed for the liturgical use of Rome, classical, and jurisprudence texts.This typeset appealed to humanists and academics, demonstra:ng the printer's awareness of his audience and the dual purpose of his typesets-func:on and decora:on. 22he border illustra:ons of the Smathers Hours are a place of innova:on and a program of parallel reading within the devo:onal hours.In a compe::ve commercial environment like Paris, printers set themselves apart and appealed to a market of individuals with varying literacy levels in La:n and the vernacular by leveraging the border frames to illustrate a story within the larger text of the book's office.Kerver featured a variety of border illustra:ons in his book of hours, including the Apocalypse, Dance of Death, and biblical typology accompanied by guided commentary in La:n and some:mes the vernacular, explaining the illustra:on. 23In the Smathers Hours, Kerver framed the An:qua typeset with border cycle illustra:ons based on commissioned designs aYributed to the workshops of two famous manuscript painters, the Master of the Apocalypse Rose and Jean Pichore. 24Kerver had used designs by the Master of the Apocalypse Rose, such as the Apocalypse Cycle featured in two registers with La:n commentary printed in red ink on folio G3 verso, since 1497 [Figures 3-5]. 25By the :me of the Smathers Hours prin:ng, the manuscript painter's designs were decreasing in favor of a new round of designs from the workshop of Jean Pichore. 26In Pichore's Dance of Death, the cycle featured on folio L2 verso, Death personified as a skeleton, visits the witch and the fool in the outer border frame [Figure 7].In contrast to the outer border frames are the upper, lower, and inner frames, where Kerver has rearranged a variety of ornamental and vanitas mo:fs to frame the text, complement the scenes, and suit design needs. 27For Kerver, this area existed outside of the text of the divine offices and cons:tuted a unique place for extra-liturgical viewing experiences.
The Smathers Hours and Kerver's Bibermühle 60.2 are both octavos organized into thirteen sec:ons of eight vellum leaves, crea:ng gatherings of sixteen printed pages as well as an addi:onal single gathering of four vellum leaves collated as A-I, 8 k, 8 L-N, 8 O 4 . 28Both contain the essen:al and secondary texts of tradi:onal books of hours and addi:onal accessory appeals that Kerver included in his books of hours at an increasing rate.Bibermühle 60.2 is composed of the Almanac and Calendar (A1v-A8v), the Gospel Sequence and Passion of John (B1-B8v), Office of the Virgin (C1-F3v), Peniten:al Psalms (G4-G8), Litanies (G8v-H4), Office of the Dead (H4v-K4), Hours of the Cross and Holy Spirit (K4v-K6v; K6v-L3), Marian Mass (L3-L4), Hours of Barbara (L4v-L6), Suffrages (L6v-N1), and addi:onal Prayers, Suffrages, and Indulgences (N1v-O4). 29Based on comparison with Bibermühle 60.2, sixty-four vellum leaves remain of 108 leaves ini:ally printed with the Smathers Hours: six leaves remain of gatherings A and B, the Calendar and Gospel sequences; sixteen pages remain of gatherings C through H, featuring the Office of the Virgin, the Peniten:al Psalms, and Litanies; thirteen pages of gatherings H-K, housing the Office of the Dead; five pages of gathering L featuring the Hours of the Holy Spirit, Hours of Barbara, and Marian Mass; and sixteen leaves of gatherings L-N housing the Suffrages and prayers.Gathering O is also lost from the book, which featured addi:onal accessory prayers and indulgences.In addi:on to missing pages in the Smathers Hours, some leaves were likely misplaced when the book was rebound.
Based on the size of the book's leather cover and truncated design, the Smathers Hours was likely rebound at an unknown point in the book's early life.In Thielman Kerver's books of hours, prayers to Saints Stephen, Lawrence, and Christopher are tradi:onally featured in the Suffrages to the Saints on folio M5.However, in the Smathers Hours this folio is situated on the book's last page next to the back flyleaves.On the verso side is an image of St. Christopher as the Christ-bearer next to an appeal to the saint that has been rubbed away from the vellum.This would place the prayer in the O gathering, an unusual loca:on for the prayer that I have been unable to confirm against my examina:ons of comparable Kerver edi:ons.Though erased, the last two lines of this prayer appear at the top of folio M6 recto, confirming that the pages were intended to be next to one another, with the Prayer to Sebas:an following the prayer to St. Christopher.
Kerver carefully matched border typologies and text, using the ornamental frame as a space where decora:ve elements were rearranged. 30Kerver included addi:onal prayers, medita:ons, and indulgences in his tracts and consistently altered the placement of metal and woodcuts, producing a wide range of edi:ons with slight varia:ons; folios G3 verso from the Smathers Hours, Bibermühle's 60.2, and Wing MS ZW 5351.1 demonstrate that Kerver's interplay of type and image in the text and borders is consistent and allows for 25 Nemekoven, Der Meister der Apokalypsenrose, 289. 26Nemekoven, Der Meister Der Apokalypsenrose, 91.; Zöhl, Jean Pichore: 137. 27Nemekoven and Zöhl, Horae B.M.V, 2406.; Zohl, Jean Pichore, 338. 28Nemekoven, Horae B.M.V, 2399.;It seems that originally Bibermühle 60.2 contained 108 leaves, however folios B8 and K8 are noted missing from the book by Nemekoven. 29Nemekoven, Horae B.M.V, 2385-86.; Further confirming that the colla(on of Bibermühle 60.2 and the Smathers Hours align are comparisons between the damaged book and edi(ons printed by Kerver between 1506 and 1511 held in the Bibliothéque na(onale de France and the Newberry Library.comparison with intact exemplars to reconstruct the damaged sec:ons of the Smathers Hours [Figure 3-5]. 31In this example, Apocalypse scenes occupy the outer borders.At the same :me, the upper, lower, and inner frames, Kerver has rearranged a variety of ornamental and vanitas mo:fs to frame the text of the Office of the Virgin, therefore dis:nguishing the 1511 edi:ons from the 1510 edi:on by their dis:nc:ve borders.While this produced a range of copies with slight varia:ons in border design, Kerver was conscious of consistency in textual content, which is essen:al when inves:ga:ng areas that have been erased and removed from the book.

Conformity to Protestant A?tudes in the Early Life of the Smathers Hours
The next stage in the biography of the Smathers Hours-created less than a decade before the first waves of Protestant religious reform spread throughout sixteenth-century Europe-is inherently marked by the changing confessional a`tudes of devo:onal book owners. 32Thielman Kerver printed his books of hours for domes:c and interna:onal audiences and as an edi:on printed for the liturgical use of Rome, the readers could have used the Smathers Hours anywhere in Europe the Roman rite was celebrated.The ques:on of where precisely readers used the Smathers Hours is beyond this project's scope.Instead, I turn to the ques:on of how readers used it at this moment in :me.To answer this ques:on, I draw upon Eamon Duffy's research on the "vandalism" enacted upon Catholic prayerbooks by their Tudor Protestant readers during the sixteenth century. 33nglish reform shared with other reform movements the disdain for indulgences, the authority of the pope, and the role of Mary and saints as intercessors.Duffy's observa:ons provide a material point of reference for my examina:on of readers' dele:ons to the Smathers Hours.Readers altered their Catholic devo:onal books differently during this tumultuous poli:cal and doctrinal transforma:on period.Texts and images were crossed out, erased, and sliced away from books to conform to changing confessional iden::es and state edicts.Other :mes the edi:ng was unsystema:c, indiscriminate, and heavy-handed. 34The Smathers Hours seems to have been subjected to both forms of edi:ng.
The nature of the erasures and redac:ons of prayers in the Marian Mass in par:cular suggest changing a`tudes toward the venera:on of Mary.Catholicism's eleva:on of Mary, in both the story of Jesus and in the rela:onship between the individual and God, was a major point of conten:on during the Protestant Reforma:on and as a devo:onal book honoring Mary as the Mother of God, the contents of books of hours fell under obvious scru:ny.In the Smathers Hours, this controversy is materialized in the dele:on of prayers in the vo:ve mass to Mary, where nearly every line of the special celebra:on was rubbed from the vellum or redacted with black ink [Figure 2].On folio L3, the en:rety of the prayer honoring Mary as the 'holy mother who brought forth in childbirth a king,' the Salve sancta parens, was roughly scraped from the vellum leaving a block of unreadable smudged ink on the page.This was one of the many prayers venera:ng the Virgin that was contested by Protestant reformers.In primers printed in the years shortly aSer England's break with Rome in 1534, these appeals were increasingly excluded from devo:onals or were rewriYen to shiS the invoca:on from Mary to Christ. 35In the Smathers Hours, the reader chose to erase the prayer instead of annota:ng the language to invoke Christ.
When examining the extensive dele:ons of prayers venera:ng Mary in the Smathers Hours, it is notable that the reader leS some appeals untouched.The reader chose to omit from modifica:on a short saluta:on in the Marian Mass containing the printed instruc:onal rubric, "Specialis saluta:o ad beatā virginē mariā."Also leS untouched is one of the first, and likely earliest, handwriYen addi:ons to the book that likely predate Protestant conforming edits: an appeal to Mary as intercessor located in the outer margins of in the Office of the Virgin.The handwriYen appeal "pia virgo [vir]ginum i[nter]cedar pro nobis ad d[omi]num.Am[en]," pe::ons Mary and seeks her aid and advancement with God on behalf of the reader [Figure 6]. 36The reader of the Smathers Hours did not apply a wholesale dele:on of appeals to Mary, instead, they chose to carefully fragment the text to remove the most Catholic elements to conform the book to Protestant devo:on.
In contrast to the careful removal of prayers from the Smathers Hours are the dele:ons and loss of text associated with papal authority and controversial marginalia.The Reforma:on challenged the Catholic Church, the pope as leader of that Church, and the wide-ranging authority granted with the papal posi:on.In England, Henry VIII handed down two proclama:ons, one in 1535 and one in 1538, abolishing papal authority and controversial marginalia in public services books.37Underlying these edicts are Henry VIII's challenges to papal authority as a sovereign leader and the rampant corrup:on that stemmed from the pope's ability to grant indulgences.The text associated with indulgences is erased from the pages of the Smathers Hours, while their associated images are carefully leS intact.The Salve sancta facies is scraped from the vellum, leaving the image of St. Veronica and the holy face of Jesus on the page [Figure 8].The popular prayer to the holy face was tradi:onally accompanied by an indulgence when devotees recited the appeal while gazing upon the image of Veronica and her holy veil.38A debate on indulgences was at the crux of the Reforma:on, so it is natural that the prayer is erased to adhere to Protestant thought.That the image was untouched, especially one with the connota:ons of idolatry that Veronica's Veil has as an image of Christ, underscores how precious the images in the book were to users as opposed to its textual contents.With the prayer now erased, the indulgence is deac:vated, and the image may be freely gazed upon.Around 1510, Kerver began to introduce an addi:onal gathering, O, to his books of hours, including prayers to St. Augus:ne, the Ave cuius concepEo, Deus qui nos concepEonis, and an indulgence from Pope Sixtus IV.This indulgence was a rela:vely new addi:on to Kerver's books of hours but would soon be banned. 39Because the relevant pages are lost, it is not known if the text of this indulgence was redacted or erased from the Smathers Hours.However, carefully examining the book's binding does not reveal the inten:onal removal of the gathering with scissors or knives; instead, the glue in the page guYers suggests that the gathering likely separated from the book over :me.
The Dance of Death illustra:on border cycles may have been altered at varying points in the life of the Smathers Hours in rela:on to such Protestant bans on references to the pope and controversial marginal images.The Office of the Dead-controversial in Reform thought for its offering of intercessory prayer for the souls of the dead in purgatory-is leS alone in the Smathers Hours while the text of the non-liturgical Dance of Death border cycle is deleted.This cycle of images designed by Jean Pichore features Death, personified as a skeleton, appearing to men and women of all ages and sta:ons of society.The text in all fiSy frames has been removed in one of two ways.The first method, seen in most frames, is a simple scraping away of red and black ink from the vellum [Figure 7].In contrast, the text in ten frames of the Dance of Death appears to have been scraped away, followed by a liquid solu:on applied over the erasure that has stained the vellum.The pope, dressed in the accouterments of his sta:on and carrying the scepter, is visited by Death.Just as in the frame below, the King, accompanied by his symbol of authority, comes face to face with Death [Figure 9].This treatment has resulted in large ink smears throughout the ten frames, leaving the text unreadable.One possible explana:on for the varying types of edits to the Dance of Death border frame text is that the top frame featuring the pope visited by Death was edited aSer the 1535 proclama:on, removing reference to the pope. 40It was then later re-edited aSer the 1538 proclama:on banning controversial marginalia. 41In this situa:on, edits to the text of the Office make sense.However, the erasure of the text of a non-liturgical border seems more fi`ng in light of state edicts than any doctrinal implica:on. 42hen viewing the types of censorship of appeals to Mary in the Smathers Hours, it is interes:ng to consider what they mean individually and in tandem.Regardless of the forms of censorship that the reader applied at this point or the extent of that censorship, the changes to the Smathers Hours as a whole signal that the book was s:ll in use by its readers.Most of the dele:ons in the Smathers Hours cons:tute the erasure of ink from the vellum resul:ng in the permanent physical removal of prayers from the book. 43On the other hand, redac:ons, or the simple crossing through of lines of text in ink, do not permanently rid the book of the prayer.The text redacted in the Marian Mass can s:ll be read and recited out loud, making it, in this case, a less severe form of dele:on of the text. 44

Fragmenta%on in the Later Life of the Smathers Hours
As an example of an early sixteenth-century prayerbook prized by readers for its many full-page prints and hand-painted details, it is notable that the Smathers Hours is now missing these images.A catalogue entry, printed in German and adhered to the book's back inner cover menBons the border cycles but is silent on the printer and the book's core illustraBons, leading to the conclusion that these details were lost well before coming into the dealer's hands.Books have been broken apart at many points in history, but the quanBty and quality of illustraBons in books of hours, in parBcular, invited their fragmentaBon.The separaBon of pages from their bindings allowed users to admire their single leaves as objects of art appreciated outside of the original context of the devoBonal book. 45AnBquarians and connoisseurs of art alike collected fragments of the medieval past and appreciated the same refined elements of the luxury printed books of hours that appealed to Kerver's middle-class clientele centuries earlier: intricate illustraBons printed on soK vellum decorated with peBte hand-painted details, such as those iniBals missing from the pages of the Smathers Hours [Figure 2]. 46ulBple remaining folios of the Smathers Hours show evidence of the systemaBc removal of hand-painted iniBals, and the haphazard nature of the cuts indicates that they were likely made with scissors rather than the careful cuts of a pen knife. 47Victorian collectors appreciated these peBte details, and they were oKen isolated from the page and used to embellish mixed media art pieces like albums and scrapbooks. 48The popularity of images in books of hours as collecBbles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is inherent in the biography of books of hours. 49In the Smathers Hours, this is defined by the muBlaBon and fragmentaBon of the book for its hand-painted iniBals and large illustraBons.
Closely examining the book's page guTers reveals evidence of the intenBonal removal of ten vellum folios featuring illustraBons commissioned by Kerver from the manuscript workshops of the Master of the Apocalypse Rose and Jean Pichore.Most of the book's large illustraBons were located in the Office of the Blessed Virgin and once bookmarked the opening of each of the eight canonical hours. 50The intenBonal removal of the leaves in this secBon is so extensive that their absence has compromised the structure of the binding, causing addiBonal pages to be separated from the book.An examinaBon could not confirm if the first five illustraBons were separated from the book or purposely removed.Ten vellum folios have been deliberately separated from the Smathers Hours.Half of the metal-cut illustraBons removed from the book consisted of Jean Pichore's designs of 1504-Annuncia'on to the Shepherds, Adora'on of the Magi, Presenta'on in the Temple, Flight to Egypt, and the Corona'on of Mary-and were once part of the Office of the Blessed Virgin.The five remaining illustraBons marking the openings of the PenitenBal Psalms, Office of the Dead, Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Spirit, and Suffrages are intenBonally sliced from the book.Jean Pichore's 1504 Anoin'ng of David, Raising of Lazarus, Crucifixion, and Pentecost are removed from the book and the Master of the Apocalypse Rose's 1497 Emblema'c Trinity. 51An examinaBon of folio G4, where an illustraBon of the Anoin'ng of David would have opened the PenitenBal Psalms, reveals only a thin sliver of vellum where the page has been crudely sliced away from the book [Figure 10].
The illustraBons in the Smathers Hours have been removed from the original context of the devoBonal book.To readers of the prayerbook, these illustraBons served mulBple purposes.From a pracBcal standpoint, they bookmarked primary texts of a book printed in LaBn.When a reader comes upon the image of the Anoin'ng of David, they know they have reached the PenitenBal Psalms, whether they read LaBn or possess no literacy skills.From a devoBonal standpoint, the illustraBon served as a space of visual delight that invited further contemplaBon of the story of David as King of Israel and the parallels between the Old Testament King and the New Testament Savior.As a didacBc aid, the AnoinBng of David introduced young learners and readers to the fundamental concepts of a religion steeped in interacBons between image and text.At first, the young or novice user is guided through an image illustraBng the story of David and the trials and tribulaBons the shepherd encountered on his way to becoming king.Next, when the reader has matured in their literacy and religious educaBon, the now-familiar illustraBons support and enrich the PenitenBal Psalms, the text wriTen by David that emerged from these early obstacles.
Though removed from the book's original context, the illustraBons may have served similar funcBons.Sliced from the book, they may have been displayed like any two-dimensional image would be today, perhaps framed or pinned to a wall. 52In this case, the illustraBons removed from the Smathers Hours sBll acted as a place of spiritual contemplaBon and visual delight that taught the stories of a young shepherd who became King of Israel.However, its combined contemplaBve and didacBc funcBon extends to the sense of nostalgia and admiraBon of the single leaf as a token of the medieval past. 53When showcased outside the devoBonal book, the isolated illustraBon assumes the primary dimension of a fragment of an arBsBc past, a piece contemplated, studied, and admired within the confines of the framed art object.form of dele:on of the text. 54

Conclusion
The Smathers Hours was printed during a potent moment in the history of the book, print, and religion, and therefore requires equally robust methodologies to idenBfy, reconstruct, and interpret the prayerbook.As a prayerbook printed in the handful of decades spanning the largescale transiBon of book producBon from manuscript to print, the Smathers Hours retains elements of both mediums, complicaBng how the book is approached.The first secBon of this arBcle alone leverages methodologies from anthropology, the history of the book, the analyBcal bibliography, and the social history of books of hours, making the Smathers Hours a compelling subject for the study of the social, cultural, and religious aftudes of book owners.An arBfact of early print culture and the audience that clamored for books of hours, the Smathers Hours holds much evidence of printshop pracBces and the many hands 50 See Haas, Fragmented Hours, Appendix E for a full list of missing illustra(ons and corresponding designer. 51Haas, Fragmented Hours, Appendix E; Claerr, Annex XVIII-XIX; Nemekoven, Horae B.M.V.365, 2386-90. 52de Hamel, Cubng up Manuscripts for Pleasure and Profit, 8. 53 Hindman, Manuscript IlluminaFon, 52. 54Duffy, Marking the Hours, 155.
that craKed the physical book in the early decades of a pivotal moment in the history of Europe.As an arBfact of how readers used their devoBonal books when ChrisBanity in Europe was undergoing seismic transformaBon, the book reflects the personal challenges of erasing a central figure from veneraBon.Finally, as an arBfact of art, the Smathers Hours reflects collecBng trends that privilege the illustraBons outside of their devoBonal contexts.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Detail of the face of St. Jerome from St. AugusNne (or St. Ambrose) and St. Jerome, German, early 16th century, oak, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 16.32.225.