"[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.

This superb vellum leaf has printed text and iron engravings with illumination in red and burnished gold. The large image on recto shows Judas betraying Jesus Christ, and is surrounded by smaller vignettes from the Gospel of John. The text on verso is the first half of Chapter 18 in the Gospel of John, in which Judas shows his disloyalty to Jesus. Additional iron engravings surround the text on verso.

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Condition: B+

Light toning and soiling.