Original continuous bifolium leaves from a medieval manuscript Breviary. 31 lines written in Latin in double columns with dark brown and red ink on animal vellum.(Each leaf: 183 x 135mm – 7 3/8 x 5 ¼’’)
Eighteen two-line illuminated initials alternating in red & white or blue & white, sixteen with a floral interior, & three with geometric interior - all on a burnished gold ground, and fifteen extending into the margin with a delicate rinceaux border in red, blue, green, yellow burnished gold. Closed tear with original stitching (caused when the vellum was originally stretched). France, c. 1475.
The two-line illuminated “I” begins: “ In illo tempore…” (At that time, when a great crowd came together and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed).
The two-line illuminated “L” begins a Homily by Pope St. Gregory: “Lectio sancti…” (The reading from the holy gospel which you have just heard, dear brethren, needs not explanation, but attention. For man, in his frailty, should not presume to analyze what Truth himself has set forth. But there is something in the Lord’s explanation that we should carefully consider. For if we were to tell you that by the seed the word is signified; by the field, the world; by the field, the world; by the birds, evil spirits, and by the thorns riches, you might possibly hesitate to believe us).
The two-line illuminated “D” begins: “Deus qui conspicis…” (O God, you see that we do not trust in anything that we do of ourselves; mercifully grant that by the protection of the doctor of the Gentiles we may be defended against all adversaries). .
Presented in an archival 11 x 14'' mat
