Catalog Archive
Auction 117, Lot 860

"[Illuminated Leaf]", Anon.

Subject: Medieval Manuscripts

Period: 1480 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
4 x 5.5 inches
10.2 x 14 cm
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Book of Hours were prayer books designed for the laity, but modeled on the Divine Office, a cycle of daily devotions, prayers and readings, performed by members of religious orders and the clergy. Its central text is the Hours of the Virgin. There are eight hours (times for prayer ): Matins, Lauds. Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. During the Middle Ages, the leaves making up a Book of Hours were written by hand on expensive parchment and beautifully illuminated with jewel-like pigments and gold leaf. These illuminated manuscripts combined the collaborative efforts of an array of highly skilled craftspeople; requiring the joint labors of the parchmenter, professional scribes to write the text in Gothic script, artists to illuminate the pages with decorations, and masterful binders to complete the process.

A fine vellum leaf from a French Book of Hours. The text is written in a batarde book hand with the verso decorated with two initials in red, blue, white and gold leaf and a staff with very fine flowers in the margin. The rubrics are written in French rather than Latin. The vernacular began to be used at the end of the Middle Ages.

References:

Condition: B

Some surface soil.

Estimate: $275 - $325

Sold for: $230

Closed on 12/6/2006

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