An Illustrated Mid-Fifteenth-Century Primer for a Flemish Girl: British Library, Harley MS 3828

Examines what girls of the mid 15th century might have read and investigates how a new kind of illustrated literature fed the growing needs of an urban upper middle class of women and children. A unique miniature in a Flemish prayer book of about 1445 appears to depict a classroom of sorts, with reference to a prayer book. Suggests that this manuscript was compiled for a child, probably a girl. Relates the classroom miniature to the Harley prayer book, compares the latter to other manuscripts made for a similar purpose in both secular and monastic settings, and speculates on aspects of the production of the codex. (Quotes from original text)