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Books for Devotion: Private Prayer and Piety through Eight Centuries

Books for Devotion: Private Prayer and Piety through Eight Centuries  

This exhibition highlights sixty books dating from the thirteenth century to the twentieth that were intended to direct the soul heavenward in prayer and inward in spiritual contemplation. Easily held in one’s hands, these books reflect a devotional intimacy that helps us to understand the meaning of personal daily prayer and piety in centuries past. The books include medieval manuscripts of Latin Psalters, Breviaries, and Books of Hours, early printed manuals for personal devotion in various languages, Hebrew Psalters, illuminated manuscripts for Muslim prayer, and a variety of modern publications for individual Christian prayer. Unlike the public church service book known as the Book of Common Prayer, these prayer books were designed to enhance private spirituality in ways that extended beyond what could be achieved through the congregation-based methods of worship. At the same time, many of them were also treasured personal possessions whose physical beauty still engages us today.