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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 a couple of small symbols that were hand painted in red, blue and gold. The text includes part of Job Chapter 7, and translates as:

What is a man that thou shouldst magnify him? or why dost thou set thy heart upon him?
Thou visitest him early in the morning, and thou provest him suddenly.
How long wilt thou not spare me, nor suffer me to swallow down my spittle?
I have sinned: what shall I do to thee, O keeper of men? why hast thou set me opposite to thee, and I am become burdensome to myself?

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Condition: A

Minor soiling.