"[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 creamy vellum leaf is from an Italian book of hours, written in black, red and blue ink. The text is from Psalm 118, verses 38 through 54. Beginning at the top of the recto the text translates as:

Establish thy word to thy servant, in thy fear.
Turn away my reproach, which I have apprehended: for thy judgments are delightful.
Behold I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy justice.
Let thy mercy also come upon me, O Lord: thy salvation according to thy word.
So shall I answer them that reproach me in any thing; that I have trusted in thy words.
And take not thou the word of truth utterly out of my mouth: for in thy words have I hoped exceedingly.
So shall I always keep thy law, for ever and ever.
And I walked at large: because I have sought after thy commandments.

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Condition: B+

Light soiling.