The Earthly Book of Hours — Horae Terrenae in Latin — is a daily primer of art, literature, and ecology (a primer can be a devotional object or an introductory learning tool). This contemplative archive of images, readings, and natural phenomena is neither a mystical text nor a self-help manual, but something in between — a portiforium poeticum or, perhaps, a modernist breviary. It is designed for encountering the day (or night) and yourself in it, for observing biological and cultural rhythms: seeing inside or under or through. Use it to navigate the nychthemeron and chart your chronotype.
The project draws formal inspiration from earlier books of hours, the illuminated manuscripts of medieval Europe that organized daily prayer around the eight canonical hours (matins, vespers, etc.) and often included calendars, seasonal illustrations, and a variety of short readings. My contemporary adaptation of the form offers a poetic rendition of the original hours, dividing the day into eight three-hour blocks meant to evoke to the natural, psychological, and sociological rhythms of the day:
- Void (midnight to 3:00 a.m.);
- Hush (3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.);
- Chorus (6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.);
- Transit (9:00 a.m. to noon);
- Fulcrum (noon to 3:00 p.m.);
- Doldrums (3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.);
- Convivium (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.); and
- Denouement (9:00 p.m. to midnight).
Each block includes four elements:
- a selection of artistic and scientific images;
- a collection of readings drawn from literature, philosophy, and other domains;
- a list of natural phenomena occuring around that time; and
- a brief poetic statement, or versicle.
When you visit, the site displays content from the current hour; you can refresh your browser window or click "turn the page" to view alternate images and readings for that time. As the day changes around you, so does the site's content — a gentle reminder that the world moves in cycles, and that each section of the day has its own particular, if unpredictably varying, character.
In addition to the hours of the day, The Earthly Book of Hours is the repository for Lectio Terra (Latin for "earth reading"), an annual cycle of readings inspired by the devotional practice of lectio divina (divine reading). The cycle provides an experimental phenology of the seasons: approximately 12 species for each of the four seasons are selected as portals into the weird confluences of nature and culture. Each entry focuses on a single species of plant or animal, or a feature of the natural world (e.g., a landmass, a cloud type, or other natural phenomena), with a discursive headnote summarizing the item's taxonomy, cultural history, or quotidian significance. The headnote is accompanied by a selection of readings related to the item, whether directly or obliquely; drawn from poetry, philosophy, nature writing, or other domains; and intended to facilitate a mix of contemplation, curiosity, and puzzlement.
Finally, the project includes an oracular weather service, summoning a selection of images and readings based on a range of weather conditions either hand-selected by you or, with your permission, based on your location.
The Sources page provides documentation of the readings and images included in The Earthly Book of Hours, along with links to recommended editions, freely available texts, and contextual essays for further reading.
The materials gathered here are drawn primarily from the public domain, representing works whose passage into common inheritance makes this kind of curation possible. Any works subject to copyright restrictions are included in the spirit of fair use: for educational, illustrative, and non-commercial purposes, in the belief that brief encounter leads to deeper reading. Some links to books and editions across the site are provided through Bookshop.org; any small commission supports independent booksellers and helps sustain this project. If you are a rights holder with a concern about a specific work, please be in touch.
This site is an ongoing project. If you have suggestions for quotes, images, or natural phenomena to include, or if you'd like to follow along with this work and related activities, subscribe to Lectio Terra on Substack or visit my space, Otherwise, on DFOS.
Colophon
The Earthly Book of Hours is set in open-source typefaces, hosted here alongside their licenses.
Titles are set in GL-Morris, Gutenberg Labo's digitization of the Troy Type that William Morris designed for the Kelmscott Press in the early 1890s. The readings and small capitals are set in IM Fell English, Igino Marini's revival of the Fell Types, gathered by Bishop John Fell for the press at Oxford in the 1670s and probably cut by Christoffel van Dijck, Robert Granjon and Peter de Walpergen. My own writing appears in Fraunces, designed by Phaedra Charles and Flavia Zimbardi of Undercase Type (2020), and citations and captions in Cormorant Garamond, Christian Thalmann's 2015 reimagining of Claude Garamond's sixteenth-century romans.
None of these typefaces had a star of its own, so the four-pointed one that punctuates these pages (✦) was drawn for the site.