Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Prayer book
(2,128 words)

1. General

A prayer book (German Gebetbuch, earlier Betbuch) is a collection of prayers in book form, manuscript or printed. Like the hymnal, with which it is frequently combined, it belongs to the genre of edificatory literature.

Prayer books had been created by the early Middle Ages. While hand-written prayer books (siddur) were demonstrably in use in Judaism for congregational synagogue prayer and private prayer as early as the 9th century, Christian prayer books go back to the 8th century…

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Fischer, Michael and Matthias, Markus, “Prayer book”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 04 December 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_019650>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20210107



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