Catalog Archive
Auction 188, Lot 762

"[Illuminated Leaf]", Anon.

Subject: Medieval Manuscripts

Period: 1250 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
4.8 x 6.8 inches
12.2 x 17.3 cm
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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 vellum leaf is from an early Breviary, possibly written in France. The text is written in a single column (18 lines) in black ink with a number of initials in red and blue ink. This leaf includes part of Psalm 90, which translates as:

He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.
For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.
He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.
His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.
Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

References:

Condition: B+

Light soiling with some creasing.

Estimate: $140 - $190

Sold for: $140

Closed on 6/22/2022

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