Book of Hours (Use of Rome), Annunciation to shepherds, Walters Manuscript W.177, fol. 62v (cropped)

This pocket-size Flemish Book of Hours was created in Bruges between 1460 and 1470. A heavy contingent of South Netherlandish and North French saints in the litany helps localize its production. The Italianate script and later Italian provenance suggest that the manuscript may have been created for a member of the Italian community in Bruges. It contains twelve full-page miniatures produced by a single artist working in the style of the prolific mid-fifteenth-century Flemish illuminator Willem Vrelant. Several other Books of Hours in the Walters' collection are similar in style to this manuscript, exhibiting the characteristics of the Vrelant circle, notably W.179, W.180, and W.183.