The Libro d’Ore Durazzo (Durazzo book of hours) takes its name from its last owner. The work is an absolute masterpiece of Renaissance illumination. Two characteristics set this splendid work apart from all other devotional codices for private use. One is the use of purple parchment . The other is chrysography , or writing in letters of gold.
A ‘solid partnership’
With its hundreds of illuminated figures and initials, the Libro d’Ore Durazzo represents the high point in the artistic career of the painter and illuminator from Parma , Francesco Marmitta . The script is by the master calligrapher, Pietro Antonio Sallando , a grammarian of the University of Bologna .
The iconographic plan
The Libro d’Ore Durazzo , also known as the Offiziolo Durazzo , a work of the early sixteenth century, consists in a collection of psalms and prayers ( Uffici , or offices) to be recited at various canonical times of the day. These times are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext and nones, vespers and compline. Use of Books of Hours was widespread in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, above all in France and the Low Countries . For non-ecclesiastical use, and generally richly embellished with illuminated figures, these works opened with a Calendar of the cycle of the Months with illustrations of the occupations of the respective times of the year.