Original leaf from a medieval illuminated manuscript Book of Hours. 15 lines of hand ruled text on each side of the leaf written in Latin on animal vellum in brown ink (Size: 184 x 125mm – 7 ¼ x 4 7/8 inches) .
The panel borders contain a highly decorative floral design with flowers, berries, and acanthus leaves in blue, red, green, pink, and burnished gold. Scribe and illuminated in France (Anjou), Use of Angers, c. 1450-75.
This leaf continues the popular medieval prayer, the Obsecro Te: “Humilitatem…” (The humility with which thou didst respond to the Archangel Gabriel, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done according to thy word." And I beseech thee through those most holy fifteen joys that thou didst have in thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and through that holy, great compassion and most bitter sorrow thou didst have when thou didst see our Lord Jesus Christ nude, lifted upon the cross, hanging, crucified, wounded, thirsty, served gall, heard Him cry out, and then saw Him die. And through the five wounds of thy Son, through the contraction of His flesh because of the great pain of His wounds, through the sorrow thou didst have when thou didst see Him wounded, through the fountains of His blood, through all His passion, through all the sorrow of thy heart, and through the fountains of thy tears, I beseech thee along with all the saints and elect of God. Come and hasten to my aid and counsel, in all my prayers and requests, in all my difficulties and necessities, and in all those things that I may do, may say, or may think, in every day, hour, and moment of my life…).
Angers was the cradle of the Plantagenet dynasty and one of the intellectual centers of Europe during the reign of Rene of Anjou, (1434-80). When this leaf was scribed the two branches of the Plantagenet dynasty, House of Lancaster & House of York, were engaged in the War of the Roses.
Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat
