Catalog Archive
Auction 145, Lot 813

"[Illuminated Leaf]", Anon.

Subject: Medieval Manuscripts

Period: 1430 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
4.4 x 5.9 inches
11.2 x 15 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 nice vellum manuscript from a French Book of Hours, in the style of a Rouen scriptorium. Written in brown and red ink, the leaf has one large initial and one line filler in red and blue and burnished gold leaf, as well as a decorative panel in the margin on verso with ivy and flowers. The text is from Second Vespers, Psalm Nisi Dominus. The text, beginning in the middle of the recto, reads "Germinavit radix Jesse: orta est stella ex Jacob: Virgo peperit Salvatorem: te laudamus, Deus noster." which translates into English as "The root of Jesse has had seed: the star of Jacob has risen: the virgin has brought forth the Saviour: we praise thee, our God."

References:

Condition: B+

Lightly toned with marginal soiling.

Estimate: $160 - $200

Sold for: $120

Closed on 6/12/2013

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