Original leaf from a medieval manuscript Book of Hours. 12 lines of ruled text, written in Latin with dark brown ink & red rubrics in lettre batarde script on animal vellum. (133 x 90mm – 5 ¼ x 3 ½’’)
Five one-line illuminated initials alternating in blue and white and red and white on a sepia ground with delicate gold penwork.
France (Paris?), c. 1485
This leaf continues the Hours of the Virgin - Hour of Matins. Line one begins Psalm 94 (King James 95) 9-11: “Sicut in…” (As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works. Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart. And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest).
The one-line illuminated “A” begins: “Ave…” (Hail Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with thee. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and forever shall be world without end, Amen. The Lord is with thee).
Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat
