Original leaf from a medieval Book of Hours. 19 lines of ruled text, written in Dutch with dark brown ink in fine Gothic script, on animal vellum. (170 x 120mm – 6 5/8 x 4 ¾’’)
One illuminated five-line initial & three illuminated two-line initials in burnished gold alternating with an interior of blue or pink with a blue or pink ground. Recto has an illuminated bar the length of the text in burnished gold, pink and blue ending with a delicate spray of flowers at top & bottom in green, blue, red & burnished gold; Verso has a three-quarter burnished gold bar along the text and an intricate border in a floral design in blue, green, red, pink and burnished gold with an ape resting on a flower while eating one of the leaves in the margin!
Netherlands, c. 1460.
The five-line illuminated “B” begins “ Bekeer ons god…” (Convert us O God our savior. And avert thine ire from us. Incline unto my aid o God. O Lord make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end amen…)
The Dutch (Low Countries) were the first to break the tradition of using Latin in Prayer Books and Books of Hours. In England, France and Italy, Latin continued to be the primary liturgical language throughout the 1400’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
