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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 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.
Folio 70 shows the murder of Cain by his great-nephew Lamech. According to the Historia Scolastica of Peter Comestor (2nd half of the 12th century), the blind Lamech went out hunting guided by a young man. The boy, however, mistook Cain for some prey and Lamech shot his great -uncle with an arrow. Once he realized his error he took his revenge by killing his guide.
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