Catalog Archive
Auction 126, Lot 820

"[Iluminated Leaf]", Anon.

Subject: Medieval Manuscripts

Period: 1400 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
4.3 x 6.5 inches
10.9 x 16.5 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 lovely vellum leaf from a Dutch Book of Hours. The leaf is beautifully written in a regal Gothic Textura script in black ink with red rubrics. The recto is finely illuminated with two large initials painted with mauve, blue, white and burnished gold leaf. The verso is unembellished.

References:

Condition: A

Estimate: $350 - $450

Unsold

Closed on 12/3/2008

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