This edition of L'Office de la Vierge Marie (1619), or The Office of the Virgin Mary, was written by Pierre Coton, a French Jesuit who was more famously known during his lifetime as the confessor to King Henry IV and then later to his son King Louis XIII. The Office of the Virgin Mary, often referred to as the "Little Office", was the core of a genre of popular lay religious texts known as books of hours. It was a shortened version of the Church's official daily prayer or "Divine Office" that focused on the life of the Virgin Mary. By the 1300s all clergy were required to use it and this tradition continued until the Council of Trent removed this obligation in 1545; in fact, in Coton's edition he notes that it has been revised to reflect the changes instituted by the Council.
Still, despite any theological changes regarding the Little Office from the 1300s to the 1600s, it is clear from a brief examination of Coton's 1619 edition that one tradition continued with little interruption. The book is filled with gorgeous hand-painted illustrations of Mary and various saints, the colors leaping off the pages where brilliantly gifted artists have skillfully applied deft brushstrokes atop the printed engravings in work that is reminiscent of the height of late medieval manuscript book production.
To witness these vivid masterpieces, request Rare Book BX2024 .A1 1619 online and then come to Rauner to marvel at them in person.
