Original leaf from a richly illuminated manuscript Psalter - Prayer-book. 21-23 lines of Latin text. Written in unusual gothic cursive script on animal vellum. (165x135mm - 6 1/2 x 5 1/4'')
For sister leaves see The Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, The Cleveland Museum of Art).
Northern Germany, (Hildesheim?) c. 1524.
Three three-line illuminated initials in gold or silver on red, violet or brown ground with gold or silver tracery. Elaborate panel borders with full gold ground, strewn with diverse floral motifs – plus a fox trying to reach a rooster that is perched atop a flower, and (verso) a dog leaping across the bottom of the page – similar to Aesop’s Fable!
This leaf continues the section on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The illuminated “D” begins the prayer “Deus qui Beate Marie…” (The parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived the angelic prophecy of God…). The illuminated “G” begins the prayer: “Gloriosa dicta…” (Glorious things are said of thee, O Mother of God…).
This highly personalized prayer-book was written and illuminated in Germany, as evidenced by the painted Arms of Mansfeld (a prominent North German family) on a leaf, and the inclusion of St. Godehard (d. 1038), bishop of Hildesheim, portrayed as a miniature on another leaf. The date 1524 occurs in two locations in the prayer-book.
Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat
