"[Book of Hours 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.

Unusual vellum leaf printed in Gothic textura type with illuminated capitals in red, blue and gold. The text is surrounded by elaborate iron engravings. This 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. Printed vellum Book of Hours leaves are very scarce, as they were only produced between 1496 and 1530. This leaf includes Psalm 122, and beginning with the large "A" on recto, translates as:

To thee have I lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in heaven.
Behold as the eyes of the servants are on the hands of their masters,
As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for we are greatly filled with contempt.
For our soul is greatly filled: we are a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud.

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Condition: A

Minor marginal soiling and errant spots of green ink.