Catalog Archive
Auction 133, Lot 697

"[Book of Hours Leaf]", Anon.

Subject: Medieval Manuscripts

Period: 1360 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
3.5 x 5 inches
8.9 x 12.7 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

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.

This simple, but delicately crafted vellum leaf, was created during the Middle Ages. It is written in brown ink with red rubrics. The single illuminated initial is painted in gold on a blue and red background.

References:

Condition: B+

Lightly toned with some marginal stains.

Estimate: $70 - $90

Sold for: $130

Closed on 9/1/2010

Archived