NO RESERVE

"[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 three large initials and three small symbols that were hand painted in red, blue and gold. Beginning with the large "O" on verso, the text translates in part as:

O good Jesus, O sweetest Jesus, O Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary, full of mercy and piety.
O Most Merciful Jesus, I beseech Thee by that Precious Blood,
Which Thou didst wish to shed for sinners, to wash away all my iniquities,
And to look upon me as a wretched and unworthy person humbly asking for forgiveness and invoking this holy name of Jesus.

References:

Condition: A

Marginal toning.