Wallingford bookshop sells 550-year-old manuscript for £39k

Sienna Wells, the medieval manuscript specialist of a team of rare book dealers based in Howbery Park, Wallingford, made the sale of the medieval Book of Hours for a huge £39,500.

The manuscript was produced in Lyon around 1475 and features illuminations - richly decorated, miniature paintings - from the workshops of three notable artists who worked in the city.

The rare Book of Hours features illuminations - or miniature paintings - created by three notable artists working in medieval Lyon (Image: Contributed)

Just 8cm tall, the book was a personal prayer book and shows signs of use, as you can see where the illuminations were rubbed by the original owner while they were praying.

The manuscript shows sign of use during prayer by the original owner (Image: Contributed)

Medieval manuscript specialist Ms Wells said: "Books like this are not just incredibly rare, they are really intimate and personal objects.

"In the section of the book called The Office Of The Dead, which contains prayers to be said before a funeral, you can see where someone has rubbed away at one of the illuminations while praying.

"It is so moving to see someone’s physical evidence of grief over five hundred years later."

The book sold to an American university which is beginning to build their own teaching collection of medieval manuscripts.

Ms Wells added that having physical copies of historical texts is 'so important' in teaching, and added: "Being able to handle and study them in person is essential to understanding how they were used, and why they mattered to people in the medieval period."

Books of Hours were Christian religious books that were bestsellers of the medieval period, and complete examples with illuminations by noted artists and evidence of use are rare.