Manuscript Leaf with the Holy Communion

This work was designed around 1500, in Ghent-Bruges, Netherlands. While it is unknown definitively who is the maker of this work, the man in the image wearing dark clothing and receiving Holy Communion (what Catholics believe to be the Body, Blood, Soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, in the form of bread) is believed to be the owner of this manuscript. The man's family is shown in the margins, in the form of the choir and group following the priest (a type of Catholic spiritual leader) during a special day celebrating the Body of Christ called Corpus Christi. The page of this manuscript contains prayers that are to be said before and after receiving Holy Communion. This book is a Book of Hours, and it was a book of prayers and hymns that would be said or sung throughout the day, or for specific religious events or holidays. This was for private use and devotion. Originally, only nobles would have owned a book like this. But over time as literacy rates increased, ordinary citizens would come to own a Book of Hours.

This manuscript has shaped verbal and visual literacy in the religious context in the ways that the reader was meant to read the text to participate in their devotional practices, and that the user was meant to understand these images and illustrations. The user was meant to understand the visuals of the priest, the sacred setting, Holy Communion, and others. The image reinforces the prayers. This design reflects the religious beliefs about the people who produced it because it points to Christianity in the 1500s. The Eucharist/Holy Communion was important enough to be warrant devotional imagery and prayers surrounding receiving It. The owner's presence suggests that private religious devotion was important to the person who commissioned or owned the manuscript. When the user and reader opened the book to this page, they would see themselves in the act of devotion they were actively participating in. This manuscript was not only intended to communicate religious beliefs, but to be interacted with by the user.