Original continuous bifolium leaves (two leaves – four pages) from a French medieval illuminated manuscript Book of Hours. 13 lines of hand-ruled text written in Latin with dark brown ink in fine lettre bâtarde script on animal vellum with many initials heightened with yellow.
Origin: Paris, France circa 1500.
Size (each leaf): 110 x 75mm – 4.25 x 2.9 inches, from a diminutive manuscript likely written for a lady.
This is the center pair of leaves from a quire, thus the text is continuous and can be read starting from the recto of the first leaf to the verso, then to the recto of the second leaf and finally to its verso. Scarce, that can only happen on the center bifolium. The two joined leaves impart the feeling and appearance of an open medieval book !
These leaves continue the popular medieval prayer Obsecro Te: “Decendit accipere…” (Descended to accept human flesh in thy most venerable womb and which He saw in thee when He commended thee to St. John the apostle and evangelist, and when He exalted thee over the choirs of angels, and through that holy ineffable humility with which thou didst respond to the Archangel Gabriel, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done according to thy word." And I beseech thee through those most holy fifteen joys that thou didst have in thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and through that holy, great compassion and most bitter sorrow thou didst have when thou didst see our Lord Jesus Christ nude, lifted upon the cross, hanging, crucified, wounded, thirsty, served gall, heard Him cry out, and then saw Him die. And through the five wounds of thy Son, through the contraction of His flesh because of the great pain of His wounds, through the sorrow thou didst have when thou didst see Him wounded, through the fountains of His blood, through all His passion, through all the sorrow of thy heart, and through the fountains of thy tears, I beseech thee along with all the saints and elect of God. Come and hasten to my aid and counsel, in all my prayers and requests, in all my difficulties and necessities…).
Provenance: ex-collection of Brooklyn Museum of Art, acquired in 1919. Deaccessioned and sold to support the museum collection.
Shipped unmatted
