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 and blue.
Northern France (Paris), c. 1420-30.
The two-line illuminated ''D'' begins a prayer: ''Domine deus meus dirige...'' (O Lord, my God, guide my feet along the path of eternal peace...).
The two-line illuminated ''O'' begins a version of the popular medieval prayer O Intemerata: ''O Beata et intermerata...'' (O forever blessed and unspotted, unique and incomparable...).
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.
