Book of hours single leaf
Ms. single leaf from a book of hours for undetermined use (Western or Central France?); written and illuminated in Paris (France), ca. 1460-1470
Use: Use of the hours of the Virgin and the office of the Dead in the complete manuscript not indicated by the sales catalogs; the content of the litany and the fact that the hours of the Virgin are interspersed with the hours of the Cross and of the Holy Ghost evokes Loire region and Western France.
Text: Beginning of the Office of the Dead (Dilexi quoniam, Psalm 114).
Other leaves from the same manuscript, excised after 1993: 1) leaf with Crucifixion: Maggs Bros., European Bulletin no 21, London, 1997, lot 48 = Maggs Bros., Catalogue 1262, London, 1998, lot 30 = London, Sotheby, 2 Dec. 2003, lot 30 (with next one). 2) leaf with Descent of Cross: Maggs Bros., European Bulletin no 21, London, 1997, lot 49 = Maggs Bros., Catalogue 1262, London, 1998, lot 31 = London, Sotheby, 2 Dec. 2003, lot 30 (with precedent one). 3) leaf with Betrayal of Christ: Cleveland Museum of Art, cf. Stephen N. Fliegel, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn collection of manuscript illuminations, Cleveland, 1999, p. 54, no 52.
Decoration: Miniature, two-third page, arched (87 x 51 mm.), full marginal borders with vegetal decoration, blue and gold initials on brown background.
Artist: Workshop of Maître François.