Illuminated Manuscript Book of Hours Leaf, France, c. 1500
Litany of the Saints
IM-13550: Original leaf 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.
Embellished
with
Twenty-two one-line illuminated initials
and fifteen line extenders in burnished gold on a red and blue ground with
delicate white penwork.
Origin: Paris, France circa 1500.
Size: 110 x 75mm – 4.25 x 2.9 inches, from a
diminutive manuscript likely written for a lady.
The first one-line
illuminated “S” continues the Litany of
the Saints (first prescribed by Pope Gregory in 590 for a public
thanksgiving following a plague that ravaged Rome): Names of saints are listed
with each invocation followed by the abbreviation for “ora pro nobis” (Pray for us).
Among the saints listed are: St Gregory, St Ambrose, St Jerome, St Augustine, St Bernard, St
Benedict, St Martin, All ye holy Bishops and Confessors, St Mary Magdalene, St
Agatha, St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Lucy, and St Apollonia.
Provenance: ex-collection of Brooklyn Museum of Art, acquired in 1919. Deaccessioned and sold to support the museum collection.
This Book of Hours leaf was scribed circa 1500. This is a beautiful and highly ornamental original, more than 500 years old, not a reproduction. It is in excellent antiquarian condition as seen in the photos. - It comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
Books of Hours are personal prayer books of a devout and status-conscious society and are not only works of art, but cultural documents of their time. They reveal a unique combination of sacred and secular imagery - made of the finest materials, by the best craftsmen, for a small audience that could both appreciate and afford them. | ||