Single leaf from a manuscript Book of Hours - from the 1520’s Hours Workshop. 21 lines of Latin text, in dark brown ink on animal vellum. (112x64 mm – 4 3/8 x 2 ½’’)
One two-line illuminated initial in gold on an mauve ground with gold tracery. A gold cord-like border outlined in black surrounds the text. France, Tours or Paris, circa 1525-30.
Magnificent six-line miniature painting by the Doheny Master of St. Mark reading his gospel which is draped over his lap. To his right sits a lion (his attribute).
Text at miniature is Mark 16: 14-19: “Apparvit…” (Jesus upbraided them… And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, & preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth & is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; & if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, & they shall recover…).
Line 2 recto begins Matthew 2:9-12: “Qui cum…” (Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the east, went before them until it came & stood over where the child was…)
1520’s Hours Workshop manuscripts are the ultimate statements of the reception of Italianate & classical culture into French court. They were evidently made for women of the royal court, thus the knotted rope of the “Cordelieres” as an emblematic frame for the leaf.
Four leaves from this manuscript were first described by Myra Orth in “An Exhibition of European Drawings and Manuscripts 1480-1880”, and cited in the J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol. 16 (1988). The incomplete parent manuscript was offered in Fogg cat. 14 (1991), subsequently dispersed. Sister leaves appear in Cleveland Museum, Blackburn Collection, nrs. 70-71. Rare and Beautiful!
Presented in an archival 14x11'' mat
