"[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 is a lovely, tiny leaf from a Book of Hours created in Flanders around 1430. The book was so small, it must have been the property of a lady who carried it in her purse. The verso has a superb large initial "D" in blue, red, white and burnished gold leaf, and there are a number of other smaller initials in the text. The margins on recto are filled with vines, leaves and fruit. The text is part of a medieval office in honor of the Holy Spirit at Matins, and translates in part as:

O Lord, open my lips
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
O God, come to my aid.
The grace of the Holy Ghost free unto us befall:
Wherewith was overshadowed the maid of maidens all.
When the angel Gabriel his salutation said,
The Word itself flesh became and virgin fruitful made.

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Condition: B+

Light toning and soiling.