Original leaf from a medieval manuscript Book of Hours, with illuminations by a Master of the Boucicaut School. 15 lines of red-ruled, Latin text, written with dark brown ink in gothic book-hand script on animal vellum. (127 x 92mm)
Two two-line illuminated initials in burnished gold on blue and pink ground extending into the margin with a delicate rinceaux design in burnished gold, red and blue; one illuminated line-extender in blue and burnished gold.
Northern France (Paris), c. 1420-30.
The two-line illuminated ''D'' begins: ''Domine ihesu...'' (O Lord, Jesus Christ, who hung on the cross for us...).
The two-line illuminated ''S'' begins: ''Salvator Mundi...'' (Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of the world...).
Provenance: Sotheby's - ex G. Barilla of Geneva, and formerly Frederick Fowler collection (England c. 1820's).
Books of Hours are personal prayer books of a devout and status-conscious society and are not only works of art, but cultural documents of their time. They reveal a unique combination of sacred and secular imagery - made of the finest materials, by the best craftsmen, for a small audience, which could both appreciate and afford them.
Presented in an archival 14x11'' mat
