Original leaf from a medieval manuscript Book of Hours. 17 lines of text, ruled in red, written in Latin and French with dark brown and red ink in gothic script on animal vellum. (150 x 108mm – 5 7/8 x 4 ¼’’)
Two two-line illuminated initials alternating in blue and pink with delicate white penwork with an interior design in red, blue, gold and white on a burnished gold ground and extending into the margin with an delicate rinceaux border in burnished gold and blue.
Northern France, c. 1450-70.
The elaborate illuminated “D” begins a prayer meant to be recited before or after communion: “Domine…” (Lord Jesus Christ, who didst take up this Thy most sacred Flesh and most precious Blood from the womb of the most glorious Virgin Mary, and didst shed this selfsame Blood from Thy most holy side upon the altar of the Cross for our salvation, and in this glorious Flesh didst rise from the dead, and then ascended into heaven with this same sacred body, and will come again to judge the living and the dead in this very same flesh, deliver us through Thy most sacred Body, which is just now drawn upon the altar through the hands of Thy priest, from every uncleanness of mind and body, and from every evil and danger, past and future). The rubrics and following prayer are written in medieval French.
Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat
