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 primarily in French (with only "Ave Maria" in Latin) and is surrounded by elaborate iron engravings that include plants, animals, hunters, a unicorn, as well as several biblical scenes. Printed vellum Book of Hours leaves are very scarce, as they were only produced between 1496 and 1530. The text translates in part as:

Hail Mary
Do you possess that human lineage—
By nature: restored to a state of prelacy
And sustenance: bestowed upon all mankind?
Like she who procures for each and every one
A wholesome remedy—Theophilus and Mercury,
You held this in your charge: against the inhumane.

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Condition: A

A bright leaf with minor marginal soiling.