The Book of Hours of Richard III on-line

I just heard the fantastic news that the Book of Hours, which had belonged to Richard III, has been digitised and is now available in pdf format on-line.  This was Richard’s personal prayer book, which was found in his tent after the battle of Bosworth.

So far, we could only see one page at a time, when the book was exhibited, for instance at its present home of Lambeth Palace Library, or when it played a part in the Reinterment events of Richard III at Leicester in 2015.  Now we are able to see the entire book.

Anne F Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs wrote a book about Richard’s Book of Hours, The Hours of Richard III, which was originally published in 1990.  This has been out-of-print for years and finding an affordable second-hand copy is virtually impossible.  This book is also part of the digitisation and is now freely available.

The process was carried out by Leicester Cathedral, after Lambeth Palace Library gave its permission to this project.  The digitisation of this manuscript was made possible with the financial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Richard III Society and the University of Leicester.  Thank you to all involved!  This is fantastic news indeed.

You can find the digital version here:  http://leicestercathedral.org/about-us/richard-iii/book-hours/