Nativity. Illuminated page from French Book of Hours (Bean Ms. 2). Fifteenth century.

A Nativity scene from an illuminated page in a fifteenth-century French Book of Hours (Bean Ms. 2). Books of hours were used by the European upper class for private devotions. The text was a shortened version of the divine office, but the primary characteristic of most of these manuscripts was their rich ornamentation and copious illumination. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a time of rapid economic expansion in Europe. The rising upper class and powerful aristocrats sought new ways to enjoy and express their wealth. Building private library collections in the last decades before the printing press and commissioning valuable manuscripts became important pursuits-spiritually, intellectually, and socially. The work of fulfilling commissions passed often into the hands of professional secular artisans.