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Leaf from a Book of Hours

Northwestern French
Medieval (Gothic)
about 1450–75
Place of Manufacture: Northwestern France

Medium/Technique Tempera and ink with gold on parchment
Dimensions Overall (page dimensions): 19.8 x 15.2 cm (7 13/16 x 6 in.)
Credit Line The Lloyd and Vivian Hawes Collection
Accession Number2000.728
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope

DescriptionA single leaf from a Book of Hours (Hours of the Cross opening).

1column of 12 text lines in Latin. Bounding lines in light red plummet, writing lines in light red plummet, doubled at left on verso.

Written in a Gothic bookhand in black ink fading to brown with red rubrics. Four-line historiated initial [D] on recto in salmon with white filigree highlights in gold frame, historiated with Adam and Eve in the garden. Text enclosed in wide ¾ frame of triangular compartments filled with flowers in colors on gold background. Full border of leafy sprays in colors and thin acanthus with fruit, gold berries, birds, human figures (Christ at upper left, Angel at upper right), marginal figure scraped away at right. Two-line initials in salmon with floral infill in gold frame. One-line initials in gold filled and surrounded by blue and salmon with white filigree highlights. Border on verso in outer margin only, as on recto but with no figures.

ProvenanceBy 2000, collection of Lloyd and Vivian Hawes, Wellesley, MA; 2000, bequest of Vivian Hawes. (Accession date: June 21, 2000)