The acquisition in January 2014 by Kerry Stokes AC of the splendid Netherlandish manuscript familiarly known as the Rothschild Prayer Book has had a number of positive consequences for medieval manuscript studies in Australia. As well as its great beauty and excellent state of preservation, the Rothschild Prayer Book represents the peak of development of one of the most popular types of Western medieval illuminated manuscripts: the Book of Hours. This personal prayer book takes its name from the traditional ‘canonical hours’ of prayer – Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Throughout its history the Christian Church has used this system – which goes back to ancient Roman times – to describe the schedule of one of its main forms of public worship: the Divine Office. The service involves the solemn chanting of select Psalms at the canonical hours for each of the feasts of the year. Short verses or antiphons accompany these psalms, and sung responsories highlight the relevant readings, usually taken from the Scriptures or the Fathers of the Church. These are read at Matins, the longest hour of the Office. Hymns relating to the theme of the feast are also part of the service.

Originally, these texts were contained in a number of separate books, but from the eleventh century on, they were also sometimes compiled in one comprehensive liturgical book called the Breviary. By the time the Rothschild Prayer Book was made – probably in Bruges and Ghent in the first decade of the sixteenth century – extracts from certain Breviary Offices, along with a number of other personal devotions, had been incorporated in a prayer book known as the Book of Hours.