Original leaf from a manuscript Book of Hours. 13 lines of text, ruled in red, written in Latin with dark brown ink in gothic liturgical book hand, on animal vellum.(195 x 145 mm - 7.8 x 5.8").
For sister leaf see Blackburn Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art, pl. 49.
Northern France (Probably Paris), c. 1460.
Full illuminated borders of dense liquid gold with acanthus sprays interspersed with ivy leaves having gold dots decorated with pen strokes, & with flowers & leaves executed in pink, red, blue, green, & gold with a bird in the upper section.
Painted by an illuminator in the Circle of the Coetivy Master. It is particularly unusual to contain painted historiated roundels. This leaf's roundels depict the life of St. Katherine, who is depicterd wearing pink with the initials "S K" at the hem. St. Katherine was the most popular medieval female saint; patron of philosophers & preachers; lived 3rd to 4th century. The book from which this leaf came was likely a commission for a person of high rank, since it was very specific and very costly.
The large two-line initial contains a portrait & is on a gold ground. The text line one concludes Psalm 23 (King James 24):9-10: "Et elevamini…” (And be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: & the King of Glory shall enter in). The text next to the portrait begins a hymn: "Surge beatissima..." (Arise therefore most blessed Virgin Mary. Act mercifully for us...)
Presented in an archival 14x11'' mat.
