Current Auction
Lot 664
Current Auction

NO RESERVE

"[Illuminated Leaf]", Anon.

Subject: Early Printing

Period: 1500 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
5.2 x 7.9 inches
13.2 x 20.1 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

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 two large initials and numerous small initials that were hand painted in red, blue and gold. The text includes Psalm 40, and beginning with the large "B" on recto translates in part as:

Blessed is he who shows understanding toward the needy and the poor. The Lord will deliver him in the evil day.
May the Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth. And may he not hand him over to the will of his adversaries.
May the Lord bring him help on his bed of sorrow. In his infirmity, you have changed his entire covering.
I said, “O Lord, be merciful to me. Heal my soul, because I have sinned against you.”
My enemies have spoken evils against me. When will he die and his name perish?
And when he came in to see me, he was speaking emptiness. His heart gathered iniquity to itself. He went outside, and he was speaking in the same way.
All my enemies were whispering against me. They were thinking up evils against me.
They established an unjust word against me. Will he that sleeps no longer rise again?
For even the man of my peace, in whom I hoped, who ate my bread, has greatly supplanted me.
But you, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up again. And I will requite them.
By this, I knew that you preferred me: because my adversary will not rejoice over me.
But you have sustained me, because of my innocence, and you have confirmed me in your sight in eternity.
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for all generations and even forever. Amen. Amen.

References:

Condition: A

Minor soiling.

Estimate: $80 - $100

Current High Bid:
$21

Reserve: Reserve Met
Next Bid: $22

Bid Increments
Under $50$1
$50 - $99$5
$100 - $249$10
$250 - $499$25
$500 - $999$50
Terms & Conditions