GOLD & FLORAL MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT BOOK OF HOURS LEAF c. 1470, O INTEMERATA

  IM-11837: An original leaf from an illuminated manuscript Book of Hours. 24 lines of text, ruled in red, written in Latin on both sides of the leaf in an elegant  and very accomplished angular gothic book-hand script on animal vellum. The capital letters in the text are highlighted in saffron. This leaf is large for a book of hours, measuring 178 x 125 mm (7 x 5”).

UNUSUALL VIBRANT AND ELABORATE PANEL BORDERS ON RECTO AND VERSO IN A COLORFUL FLORAL MOTIF IN RED, GREEN, BLUE AND WHITE ON GOLD GROUND.  

This Book of Hours leaf was scribed in France: Rouen (Use of Rouen), c. 1470-1490. This is an original more than 500 years old, not a reproduction, and its condition is excellent, as shown in the photos. The colors and gold are very fresh and bright.

The leaf continues the very popular medieval prayer O Intemerata: : “ Nostro iesu…” (the same Lord Jesus Christ was chosen a virgin, and among the rest more beloved, above all instructed in the heavenly mysteries, for thou wast made a most worthy Apostle and Evangelist: thee also I call upon with Mary, the mother of the same Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, that thou wouldst vouchsafe to afford me thy aid with hers. O ye two celestial jewels, Mary, and John. O ye two lights divinely shining before God. Chase away by your bright beams the clouds of my offenses. For you are those two in whom God the Father through His own Son, specially built His own house, and in whom the only-begotten Son of God as the reward of your most sincere virginity confirmed the privilege of His love while hanging on the Cross, saying thus to one of you: "Woman, behold thy son," and then to the other, "Behold thy mother." In the sweetness therefore of His most sacred love, through which by our Lord's own mouth, as mother and son you were joined to each other, I, a most wretched sinner, commend this day to you my body and soul, that at all hours and moments, inwardly and outwardly, you would vouchsafe to be unto me steadfast guardians and devout intercessors before God…).

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.

This leaf comes with a Certificate of Authenticity .

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