Original leaf from a medieval manuscript Book of Hours. 14 lines, of red-ruled Latin in dark brown ink, written in fine gothic script on animal vellum. (162 x 120mm).
One two-line illuminated initial in gold on blue and red ground. Rinceaux panel border decoration with burnished gold ivy leaves and a berry and floral motif in red, blue, green and liquid gold.
France, c. 1440-60.
The one-line illuminated ''O'' begins a prayer which concludes the Litany of the Saints (first prescribed by Pope Gregory in 590 for a public thanksgiving following a plague that ravaged Rome). ''Omnipotens…'' (O Almighty and everlasting God, which hast power over the living as also over the dead, and hast mercy on all them, whom thou fore-knowest shall be thine by faith, and work, we humbly beseech thee: that for whom we have determined to pour forth our prayers, and whom this present world as yet in flesh retaineth, or the world to come hath taken unto it, now being delivered from the body, all thy saints making for them intercession, through the clemency of thy pity they may obtain pardon of all their sins. Through our Lord Jesus Christ…).
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.
Shipped in archival 14x11'' mat
