"[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.

Unusual vellum leaf printed in Gothic textura type with illuminated capitals in red, blue and burnished gold leaf. The text is surrounded by elaborate iron engravings that include plants, animals, and cherubs, as well as several biblical scenes with French captions. Printed vellum Book of Hours leaves are very scarce, as they were only produced between 1496 and 1530. The text includes Psalm 124, which translates as:

They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion: he shall not be moved for ever that dwelleth in Jerusalem.
Mountains are round about it: so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth now and for ever.
For the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the just: that the just may not stretch forth their hands to iniquity.
Do good, O Lord, to those that are good, and to the upright of heart.
But such as turn aside into bonds, the Lord shall lead out with the workers of iniquity: peace upon Israel.

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Condition: A

Minor soiling.