"[Illuminated Leaf]", Hardouin, Gilles

This leaf is from the brief transitional period when the new technology of printing with movable type was combined with the more labor intensive methods of hand painting. The earliest printers were trained in the manuscript tradition and incorporated the conventions of historiated initials and illustrations into their early work. At first they left those spaces blank for the illuminator to complete entirely by hand. Later they developed printing methods (using woodcuts or iron engravings) to decorate the leaves.

This leaf is from a Book of Hours printed on vellum by Gilles Hardouin for Germain Hardouin librayre demourant entre les deux portes du Palays en l’enseigne Saincte Marguerite (bookseller living between the two gates of the Palace at the sign of Saint Marguerite) of Paris. This leaf is from the transitional period when the new technology of printing with movable type was combined with the more labor intensive methods of hand painting. Illuminated manuscript books of hours were costly to make, and early printers realized the commercial value in printing larger quantities of illustrated books of hours at a lower cost. These printers tried to make their books of hours appear as similar to the manuscript books as possible, even going so far as to mimic the red lines scribes used to keep their text uniform. This leaf has numerous initials that were hand painted in red, blue and gold. The text on recto is from Sirach 24, beginning with verse 17 on recto with the large initial "Q." The text translates as:

I was exalted like a cedar in Lebanon and like a cypress on Mount Zion.
I was exalted like a palm tree in Kadesh and like a rose bush in Jericho.
I was exalted like a beautiful olive tree in the plains, and like a sycamore tree beside the waters along a wide road.
I gave off an aromatic fragrance like cinnamon or balsam. I produced a sweet odor like the best myrrh.

The large initial "T" begins the famous song by Ambrosius and Augustinus, Te deum laudamus:

We praise thee, O God:
We acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee:
The Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud:
The Heavens, and all the Powers therein.

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Condition: A

Clean and bright with minor marginal soiling and a couple of minute worm holes.