This charming picture of a woman picking grapes first came to my attention whilst reading The Typical Tudor. I was immediately enchanted, and noted that it came from the Hennessy Book of Hours. Throughout the book I found other examples taken from Books of Hours, and soon my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself trawling through online archives of various museums and art galleries looking for digitised copies. I swiftly began to assemble a long list of what I know to be a mere fraction of what’s out there, and I’m not the kind of person who can uncover an exciting assemblage of evidence for historical dress (especially peasant dress) and then close the door on it without telling others.

I’m not a fan of the chop-and-change format of many costume blogs, particularly when original images from the period are not cited and therefore almost impossible to retrieve. Perhaps it’s pedantic, but I like to keep things from the same source together in my research, only re-ordering and mixing things up when conducting later analysis.

And so for the foreseeable future, I will be posting my findings here in relation to individual Books of Hours, with rudimentary observations of the styles of clothing portrayed. I want this to be an easily accessible resource for people interested in the dress of common people in the 16th century.

A Book of Hours was a specific type of prayer book, often produced en masse for widespread sale, but also commissioned exclusively for elite members of society. The vast majority were produced in France and the Lowlands, and follow a consistent and predictable format. Typically, they open with a calendar of the year, often featuring illustrations of common people undertaking agricultural tasks, which vary along with their dress from season to season, before moving into the story of Jesus Christ’s life, and then those of various martyrs.

Let’s look at some examples from the FitzWilliam Book of Hours…

FitzWilliam Book of Hours Folio 1r, January

Note that the people are wearing clothing contemporary to the book’s manufacture dates of c. 1510-1520

FitzWilliam Book of Hours Folio 24v, The Crucifixion

Note the “generic medieval” styles of clothing made to look outdated to the 16th century, combined with Romanesque draped elements to give a sense of belonging to a different time

FitzWilliam Book of Hours Folio 180r, St Catherine

Note the “generic medieval” style of her dress with a loose-sleeved gown, double clasped cloak and headdress featuring a crown and crespinettes as well as loose hair. Combining historical elements with some fantasy gives her the appropriate timeless quality of a saint

By the 16th century there is an awareness of the people of Jesus’s time dressing differently, resulting in many of these Biblical figures sporting a mixture of generic medieval dress and loose drapery clearly inspired by the Romans. Therefore, many of the images depicting Biblical stories cannot be relied upon for contemporary dress. However, the images in the calendar are intended to portray real people, and prove a vital insight into everyday people’s clothing through the seasons.

Stay tuned and consider subscribing to be notified when a new post comes up on Books of Hours. Also, feel free to comment down below if you have a particular take on the material I’m looking at, or any suggestions for what to look at next.

Until next time

Kate

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The FitzWilliam Book of Hours, MS1058-1975, can be found via the FitzWilliam Museum Website at the following links

https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/illuminated/manuscript/discover/book-of-hours

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/images/id/170636