Subject: Early Printing
Period: 1500 (circa)
Publication:
Color: Hand Color
Size:
5.2 x 7.8 inches
13.2 x 19.8 cm
This leaf is from the brief transitional period when the new technology of printing with movable type was combined with the more labor intensive methods of hand painting. The earliest printers were trained in the manuscript tradition and incorporated the conventions of historiated initials and illustrations into their early work. At first they left those spaces blank for the illuminator to complete entirely by hand. Later they developed printing methods (using woodcuts or iron engravings) to decorate the leaves.
This vellum leaf has two large initials and one small symbol that were hand painted in red, blue and gold. The text translates in part as:
Trembling and terrible judgment in sight, your only son, to whom the father has given all judgment, free me and protect me from the punishments of hell, and make me a partaker of heavenly joys.
References:
Condition: A
Minor marginal soiling.