The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Adoration of the Magi (recto); Text (verso)

c. 1415

workshop of Boucicaut Master

(French, Paris, active about 1410–25)
France, Paris
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Folio: 16.8 x 12.7 cm (6 5/8 x 5 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1955.79.1
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

All books of hours contain the same basic sections and were highly customizable.

Description

Books of hours were devotional books popular in the Middle Ages. Meant for laypeople, or those not in the clergy, they were used at home and contained daily prayers as well as prayers for specific occasions, such as death, plague, warfare, travel, or bad weather. The heart of every book of hours is the Hours of the Virgin. With this set of prayers, the reader asked the Virgin Mary to intercede on their behalf. The Adoration of the Magi opens sext, the sixth hour of the day, or noon. The Coronation of the Virgin begins compline, which is before retiring for the evening.
  • -1955
    Dr. Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1955-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum. An Exhibition of Netherlandish Book Illumination, April 22 Thorugh May 12. 1960. Cat. no. 10 a-d
    Gothic Art 1360-1440. (1963). The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 50(7). no. 13, p. 188 www.jstor.org
    Meiss, Millard, Kathleen Morand, and Edith W. Kirsch. French Painting in the Time of Jean De Berry: The Boucicaut Master. 1968. p. 139
  • The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).
    Gothic Art 1360-1440. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 6-September 15, 1963).
    Netherlandish Illumination, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (April 22-May 12, 1960).
  • {{cite web|title=Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Adoration of the Magi (recto); Text (verso)|url=false|author=Boucicaut Master|year=c. 1415|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1955.79.1