Latin, Vernacular Language, and Personal Devotion in the Portland State Book of Hours

Books of Hours were produced all over Medieval Europe, as can be seen in this exhibition showcasing examples from French, Italian, and Dutch manuscripts. While stylistic and material analyses can help establish regional variations, a linguistic analysis of a Book of Hours ' text can yield significant insight as to where and when it was produced. Most Books of Hours were written in Latin, as it was, and still is to this day, the language of the Church. However, some of these manuscripts were written, at least in part, in the vernacular of the various regions where they were produced. French society in the Middle Ages was highly multilingual, that is not to say that everyone spoke many different languages but rather that the country was divided socially, culturally and geographically in several linguistic groups.1 Latin was considered to be at the very top of the linguistic hierarchy in France at the time, it was associated with the church, education, intellectual life and also power, as most people could not read it.2 French, along with the various regional dialects in France such as Gascon, Occitan or Provençal, was thought to be the language of the common people.3 While it was commonly used in spoken communication, its written component was associate