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"[Book of Hours Leaf]", Anon.

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 numerous small initials that were hand painted in red, blue and gold. The text includes part of Job Chapter 17, and beginning with the large "S" on verso translates as:

My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

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Condition: A

Minor soiling.