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The book of hours, known as the Visconti Hours or Offiziolo (Book of the Offices) denotes two manuscripts in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence: the first part is Ms. Banco Rari 397, the second part is to be found in Ms. Landau Finaly 22. This Book of Hours was originally divided into two parts which were bound separately from the beginning.
The manuscript was made for Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351-1402), the ruler of Milan from 1385. The two volumes was written by brother Amadeus. They are of the same size and are laid out and decorated in the same way. The first volume was decorated by Giovannino de' Grassi and it was completed by 1389, the decoration of the second volume began at the turn of the fifteenth century in the Grassi workshop and was executed by Salomone de' Grassi, the son of Giovannino, Belbello da Pavia, and other artists in the workshop. It was completed c. 1430.
Because of its exceptional decoration, the Visconti Hours is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Lombard miniature.
The miniature on folio 117v, shown here, depicts David enthroned.
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