Da Costa hours
Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), 1910
The initial C beginning the Compline of the Hours of the Virgin encloses a strawberry and is decorated with foliate ornament.
The border framing the text is decorated with flowers and pearls within panels of a diamond pattern. In the right border, a pendant inscribed IHS hangs within one panel. A jeweled pendant hangs in a panel in the lower border.
Image courtesy of Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz/Austria.