I got this issue that I have continued to go back and forth on for the past several years.  I am curious about what other folks think on the matter.  Guess I should get to explaining.  A long time ago, when searching for some books on how to do some of it, I found online authentic and verified by apparently somewhat reputable sources illuminated pages from medieval books, usually the most common come from Books of Hours and other prayer types of books, apparently having been really common during times that I am in particular most interested.  They were for sale on eBay and after a little research they can be found in several other places as well.

I suppose because of the sheer volume of the number of such books made and lack of really anything new or profound in them, while some are pricey, for the most part they are not excessively out of range.  For instance, the page above, one of the more extravagant that I have seen was priced less the $1000 and I have seen several actually sold in the $100-150 range, especially with less artwork.  My point with that pricing is it is not completely out of my own range and I have thought about acquiring a few of these beautiful works.

My thoughts run something like this, they are for sale.  I like them.  I like the period in general.  I am  likely never going to be able to afford a piece of armor or something from the period.  Clearly not something museums are very interested in given the volume of them already in museums and the lower prices indicate if they wanted they would pursue them.

But then the thing that stopped me before, was as it was pointed out to me by a friend, with a major in historic preservation – something is being destroyed in the process and spread to the winds.  Namely the book from which the pages are taken.  Of course, reality is I suspect in most cases the pages were taken from the books years ago.   But then there is the question of the ones that maybe are not already apart and by making such a purchase is there a promotion of such defiling behavior?  Does it make the next person who finds one in grandma’s attic decide to carefully remove the pages one by one?

And then my thoughts turn to I would care for it and cherish and probably leave it with some organization that would display it on my ultimate demise.  And I also think that if I saw a complete prayer book at a price I could afford that would be a good thing instead, of course the likelihood of that is pretty slim, both based on what I have seen and probably because of just the fact the price point of individual pages leads to easier sales over an entire book.  And that furthers the argument against single pages.

Anyway, just curious from those of you out there and what your thoughts on the matter are?

** – page from a Book of Hours, circa 15th century, listed on eBay several weeks ago