Original leaf from a French medieval illuminated manuscript Book of Hours. 17 lines of hand-ruled text written in Latin with black ink in fine bold gothic textura script on animal vellum with rubrics in red.
Sixteen one-line illuminated initials alternating in burnished gold with blue penwork and blue with red penwork – many extending into the margins.
Origin: Paris, France - circa 1425-1450 Size: 6.1 x 4.5 inches, (155 x 114mm)
The one-line illuminated “A” continues the Canticle of Zachary – Luke 1:69-79: “Et erexit…” (And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant: As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning: Salvation from our enemies, & from the hand of all that hate us: To perform mercy to our fathers, & to remember his holy testament, the oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us, that being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear, in holiness & justice before him, all our days. And thou, child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways: To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins. Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us: To enlighten them that sit in the darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace).
Provenance: Written for the Use of Paris – Rare inclusion of St. Bruno in the Litany indicates possible ownership by a monk of the Carthusian Monastery of Vauvert (Order of St Bruno), Paris (established 1257, dissolved 1792).
Shipped unmatted
