Original leaf from an exceptionally large and costly medieval manuscript Book of Hours. 14 lines of text, ruled in red, written in Latin with dark brown ink in gothic script on animal vellum. (210 x 145mm)
Three two-line illuminated initials, six one-line illuminated initials and one illuminated line-extender in burnished gold on red and blue ground with delicate white penwork. The miniature paintings from this book were painted in the style of the Master of the Harvard Hannibal.
Northern France, c. 1430.
This leaf continues the Hours of the Holy Spirit - Hour of Sext. The two-line illuminated ''S'' begins the prayer: ''Septiformen...'' (Then did they the sevenfold grace abundantly receive, Whereupon all languages they fully did perceive. To the world's sundry coasts they then departed all: And did preach the Christian faith which Catholic we call).
The next two-line illuminated ''S'' begins the prayer: ''Spiritus...'' (Called it was the Holy Spirit that comfort thus did bring, The gift of God, Charity, and the reviving spring, The unction Spiritual, and eke the fire that flames, Sevenfold grace, precious gift, so called by many names).
The two-line illuminated ''D'' begins: ''Dextre...'' (The finger of God's right hand, the ghostly virtue still, Us defend, and set us free from every kind of ill: To the end the hellish ghost do us no hurtful deed: Under His wings He us keep, and there us nurse and feed).
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 that could both appreciate and afford them.
Shipped in archival 14x11'' mat.
