"[Illuminated Leaf]", Anon.

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 tiny vellum leaf is from an early French Book of Hours with decoration typical of the scriptoria of Northern France in the second half of the 14th century. Each side has one large illuminated initial painted in blue and red pen work and burnished gold leaf in addition to several small initials. The first four lines of text on recto are from Psalm 126 and read:

[Qvi seminant in lachrymis:]
in exultatione metent. Evntes ibant et flebant
mittentes semina s ua.
Venientes autem venient cum exultati-
one: portantes manipulos suos.

This translates in English as:
They that sow in tears: shall reap in joy.
He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,
Shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

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Condition: B+

Light toning and soiling.