Original leaf from a medieval manuscript Breviary. 31 lines written in Latin in double columns with dark brown and red ink on animal vellum. (183 x 135mm – 7 3/8 x 5 ¼’’)
Ten two-line illuminated initials alternating in red and white or blue and white, seven with a floral interior - all on a burnished gold ground, and seven extending into the margin with a delicate rinceaux border in red, blue, green, yellow burnished gold; two one-line illuminated initials alternating in dark blue with delicate red penwork and burnished gold with delicate violet penwork. France, c. 1475.
The first two-line illuminated “D’ begins Genesis 1:20-23: “Dixit etiam…” (God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth…And God created the great whales… …And the evening and morning were the first day).
The next two-line illuminated “D” continues verses 24-25: “Dixit quoque….” (And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind…).
The two-line illuminated “E” begins 1:25-26: “Et vidit Deus…” (And God saw that it was good. And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts and the whole earth…).
The next two-line illuminated “E” begins 1:27-28: “Et creavit…” (And God created man to his own image…Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule…).
Text continues Genesis 1:29-2:12: “Dixitque…” (And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth…And the evening and morning were the sixth day…And on the seventh day God ended his work…He blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it…And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul…).
Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat
