NO RESERVE

"[Illuminated Leaf]", Anon.

Book of Hours were prayer books designed for the laity, but modeled on the Divine Office, a cycle of daily devotions, prayers and readings, performed by members of religious orders and the clergy. Its central text is the Hours of the Virgin. There are eight hours (times for prayer ): Matins, Lauds. Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. During the Middle Ages, the leaves making up a Book of Hours were written by hand on expensive parchment and beautifully illuminated with jewel-like pigments and gold leaf. These illuminated manuscripts combined the collaborative efforts of an array of highly skilled craftspeople; requiring the joint labors of the parchmenter, professional scribes to write the text in Gothic script, artists to illuminate the pages with decorations, and masterful binders to complete the process.

This vellum leaf is from an early Breviary written in northern France or Flanders. The text is written in a single column (21 lines) in a clear Gothic book hand in black and red ink. There are five large initials in red and blue ink, with a decorative border extending into the margins. Beginning with the large "Q" on recto, the text translates as:

Dearest brothers, although I would not doubt that you (trained with fatherly care in the discipline of divine speech) thoroughly avoid and dread the general frivolousness of the coming Kalends, nevertheless, in the interest of greater improvement I don’t mind bringing the customary sermon to your ears, as most blessed Paul says: Brothers, to write the same things to you certainly is not wearisome for me, but rather necessary for you.

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Condition: B

There is light toning and soiling, as well as numerous small holes caused by the oxidation of the black ink.