Black books of hours

The parchment was soaked in an iron-copper solution and as a result could only be inscribed with gold or silver lettering.

The process was both expensive and corrosive to parchment, so surviving examples are few and generally in poor condition.

These manuscripts were produced in the mid- to late-15th century for high-ranking members of the court of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold.

[1] The Burgundian court had a preference for dark, somber colourisation, and the extant works in this style were mostly commissioned for them.

[2] Some of the miniatures in the books, notably in the Morgan library Black Hours, are linked to a follower of Willem Vrelant due to stylistic resemblance to faces from some of his known works.