Book of Hours (Use of Rouen): fol. 48v
Book of Hours (Use of Rouen): fol. 48v, Master of the Geneva Latini (French) c. 1470
Rouen in the late 1400s and early 1500s was an established and important center of book production. The city's cathedral had a wealthy chapter that spent large sums of money to commission books and to maintain its extensive library. Stationers and booksellers were concentrated near the cathedral precinct, and Rouen's geographic position at the mouth of the Seine helped to secure the economic viability of the city's wealthy merchants and bourgeois families, many of which had connections with the French court. The result must have been a healthy market for books. Richly decorated library texts and books of hours, such as this volume, were made in Rouen for sale in the cours des libraires, next to the cathedral. The artist, named after a manuscript now in Geneva, was the city's principal illuminator during the second half of the 15th century. 
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