Mid-Seventeenth-Century Prayer Book by Moreau

Pierre Moreau (ca. 1600–1648).
Les sainctes prieres de l’ame chrestienne, escrites & graveés apres le naturel de la plume.
Paris: Pierre Moreau, 1644. (BRB 0061)

Inspired by the decorative richness of devotional manuscripts, this prayer book dedicated to Anne d’Autriche, wife of Louis XIII, was engraved by the professional calligrapher Pierre Moreau and first published in 1631. Although every prayer appears at first to have its own ornamental border, close examination reveals that Moreau engraved the prayer texts on small plates inserted into any one of several recurring borders engraved on larger plates.