Résistance au changement ? Les écritures des livres d’heures dans l’espace français (1200-1600)

International audienceBooks of hours, preserved in over 10,000 copies, reflect the changes in mentalities and religiosity of the late Middle Age. Deluxe, small size, single column manuscripts on parchment, they build a specific genre. Based on more than 1600 copies, this preliminary research evidences that books of hours experience a non-linear evolution in layout and script (Textualis until 1530, Cursiva ca. 1400-1530, Humanistic ca. 1500 onwards, almost no Hybrida). It also shows that the catalogues of dated manuscripts are biased by the low proportion of colophons. The uses of scripts stand in connection with their uses in epigraphy, illumination, and liturgical books, and with the social use of the books