Heart shaped books of the XVth century
Portrait of a Young Man by Master of the View of St Gudula dated probably early 1480s. This young man has a Heart shaped books in his hands, popular in the later Middle Ages. Such miniature books contained texts, prayers and psalms, often with appropriate decorations, for Christian devotion, etc.

The Book of Hours like every manuscript is unique. The decoration is minimal in many examples, often restricted to decorated capital letters at the start of psalms and other prayers, but books made for wealthy patrons may be extremely lavish, with full-page miniatures.

The little book of hours of Amiens Nicolas Blairie, carefully written on a thin Ruling rose, but modestly decorated with some original illuminations in ink (folio 29), has the curious shape of an almond when it is closed. When it opens, the two halves of the almond bloom to fit the contours of a heart, concrete evocation of the heart of the person praying the prayer that opens.

The Heart Book, Denmark 1550’s, regarded as the oldest Danish ballad manuscript. It is a collection of 83 love ballads compiled in the beginning of the 1550’s in the circle of the Court of King Christian III.

Heart shaped books of the XVth century

This heart-shaped songbook – the Chansonnier Cordiforme, also known as the Chansonnier de Jean de Montchenu, consists of seventy-two parchment folios, in a heart shaped leather binding that opens to a double heart shape.

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