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. (103 x 73mm – 4 x 2 3/8’’)
One two-line illuminated initial in burnished gold on a deep blue and red ground with white penwork – extending into the margin top and bottom with a delicate floral design in burnished gold, green, blue and brown; two one-line illuminated initials alternating in gold with violet penwork and blue with red penwork.
England, c. 1440 (likely Syon Abbey, by a member of the Bridgettine Order).
English manuscript Books of Hours are very uncommon. In 1533 Henry VIII decreed that books relating to the practices of the Church of Rome should be destroyed. Most of the remaining examples were held secretly in private hands.
The Bridgettine (or Brigittine) Order was a monastic religious order of Augustinian nuns. The Bridgettine monastery of Syon Abbey, Ipswich, Middlesex was founded and royally endowed by Henry V in 1415 and became one of the richest and most influential religious communities in England until its dissolution under Henry VIII.
This leaf continues the Prayers of St. Bridget (or The Fifteen Oos). The fifteen prayers were for a long time attributed to St. Bridget of Sweden (1303-73) and foundress of Brigittines. Today they are considered to have been composed in the 15th century by English mystics of the Brigittine order. The prayers are a tender meditation on Christ’s passion and death and were very popular during the Middle Ages.
Line one continues The Third Prayer: “Et tamen omnium…” (And yet, forgetting all Thy sufferings, Thou didst not cease to pray to Thy Heavenly Father for Thy enemies, saying: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Through this great Mercy, and in memory of this suffering, grant that the remembrance of Thy Most Bitter Passion may effect in me a perfect contrition and the remission of all my sins. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary).
The two-line illuminated “O” begins The Fourth Prayer: “O Ihus vera…” (O Jesus! True liberty of angels, Paradise of delights, remember the horror and sadness which Thou didst endure when Thy enemies, like furious lions, surrounded Thee, and tormented Thee with insults, spits, blows, lacerations and other unheard-of-cruelties…).
Presented in an archival 14 x 11'' mat
