"[Illuminated Leaf]", Anon.

Book of Hours were prayer books designed for the laity, but modeled on the Divine Office, a cycle of daily devotions, prayers and readings, performed by members of religious orders and the clergy. Its central text is the Hours of the Virgin. There are eight hours (times for prayer ): Matins, Lauds. Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. During the Middle Ages, the leaves making up a Book of Hours were written by hand on expensive parchment and beautifully illuminated with jewel-like pigments and gold leaf. These illuminated manuscripts combined the collaborative efforts of an array of highly skilled craftspeople; requiring the joint labors of the parchmenter, professional scribes to write the text in Gothic script, artists to illuminate the pages with decorations, and masterful binders to complete the process.

A nice vellum manuscript written in black ink with two large initials and four small initials in red and blue ink with burnished gold leaf, with a floral decoration extending into the left margin. The text includes "Remember O Creator Lord," the traditional hymn for the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the Little Hours, and beginning with the initial "D" on verso, translates as:

O God, reach out to help me. O Lord, hasten to assist me.
Remember O Creator Lord, that in the Virgin's sacred womb thou was conceived, and of her flesh did our mortality assume.
Mother of grace, O Mary blessed, to thee, sweet fount of love, we fly; shield us through life, and take us hence to thy dear bosom when we die.
O Jesus! born of Mary bright! Immortal glory be to Thee; praise to the Father infinite, and Holy Ghost eternally. Amen.

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Condition: B+

Light soiling and a few tiny holes. The black ink is faded in spots.