USC Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts

Breviary

Breviaries are often small portable books, usually smaller than antiphonals. The terms, Breviary, Divine Office, and Liturgy of the Hours are synonymous;a book containing prayers that are meant to be said at specific times throughout the day. Breviaries meant for use in choir can contain musical notation, but those for private recitation of the Office, which was increasingly common in the later Middle Ages, are not notated.

From the early Middle Ages on, clergy, monks, and nuns celebrated the Divine Office of prayers, hymns, psalms, and readings at eight different times throughout the day, using the texts in a breviary. The breviary, developed in the 11th century and liturgical in function, combines all the sung and spoken portions of the Divine Office into one volume. It is divided into a cycle of temporal, sanctoral, and common feasts. Breviaries are sometimes lavishly decorated with ornamented initials, or miniatures of biblical scenes or the performance of the Divine Office.

​​​​​​Sources:

“Breviary”,  The Catholic Encyclopedia. 

“Glossaries”, British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts. 

Danielle Mihram, 2020