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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.

This vellum leaf has four large initials and three small initials that were hand painted in red, blue and gold. The text includes part of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and beginning with the large "I" at the bottom on recto, the text translates as:

O Lord Jesus Christ, we beseech Thee that the blessed Virgin Mary, Thy Mother, whose most holy soul was pierced by the sword of sorrow in the hour of thy passion, may appeal for us to Thy clemency, now and at the hour of our death. Through Thee, Jesus Christ, Savior of the world, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, livest and reignest.

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Condition: A

Light stains along the edges of the sheet.