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"[Book of Hours Leaf]", Anon.

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.

Unusual vellum leaf printed in Gothic textura type with illuminated capitals in red and blue. The text is surrounded by elaborate iron engravings that include plants and animals, including birds, rabbits, a horse and a bat. These leaves are from the transitional period when the new technology of printing with movable type was combined with the more labor intensive methods of hand painting. Printed vellum Book of Hours leaves are very scarce, as they were only produced between 1496 and 1530. This leaf includes mythical animals with text from the Suffrages of Saint Andrew the Apostle. Beginning on verso, the text translates as:

Of all the apostles.

Ant: When thou standest before kings and princes, do not wish to consider how thou shouldst respond. For it shall be given to thee in that hour what to say.
V: Their voice has gone forth into all the earth.
R: And their words unto the ends of the earth.

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Condition: A

A bright sheet with minor soiling, a light damp stain at top left, and a small worm hole along the left edge of the sheet.