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.

These four vellum leaves feature Latin text with initials illuminated in red, blue and burnished gold leaf, surrounded by elaborate iron engravings that include biblical scenes. Included is one bifolium and two individual leaves. From the Paris workshop of Jean (Jehan) de Poitevin. The beginning of the text is the hymn, "Memento, Salutis Auctor," the traditional hymn for the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the Little Hours, the first verse of which is taken from a humn for the Christmas season. This translates as:

Remember O Creator Lord,
that in the Virgin's sacred womb
Thou wast conceived, and of her flesh
didst our mortality assume.

Mother of grace, O Mary blest,
to thee, sweet fount of love, we fly;
shield us through life, and take us hence
to thy dear bosom when we die.

O Jesu! born of Mary bright!
Immortal glory be to Thee;
praise to the Father infinite,
and Holy Ghost eternally. Amen.

The leaves also include Psalms 122-124. Psalm 122 is sometimes summarized as "Hope Under Oppression," and translates in part as:

I have lifted up my eyes to you, who dwells in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of the servants are on the hands of their masters,
As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress,
So our eyes are upon the Lord our God, until he may be merciful to us.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us. For we have been filled with utter disdain.
For our soul has been greatly filled. We are the disgrace of those who have abundance and the disdain of the arrogant.

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Condition: A

Very light soiling.