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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.

Unusual leaf printed on paper in Gothic textura type with illuminated capitals in red and blue. The text is surrounded by elaborate iron engravings that include mythical creatures. Printed Book of Hours leaves are very scarce, as they were only produced between 1496 and 1530. The text includes Psalm 23, and beginning with the large initial "D" on recto, translates in part as:

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof: the world, and all they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas; and hath prepared it upon the rivers.
Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord: or who shall stand in his holy place?
The innocent in hands, and clean of heart, who hath not taken his soul in vain, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbor.
He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Savior.

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Condition: A

A bright sheet with a small dampstain in the left margin.