Single leaf on vellum from Book of Hours.

[FRENCH ILLUMINATOR]

Single leaf on vellum from Book of Hours.

Single leaf on vellum (183 x 114mm), recto and verso with leafy, two-sided enclosed borders of red, blue and gold acanthus leaves on white, gold and red grounds, with thistles, strawberries, blue forget-me-nots and red flowers, each page with a rectangular miniature at bas-de-page, recto depicting bird-like creature facing small, winged beast, verso depicting insect and long-beaked bird, both with shades and highlights picked out in gold, trees with red and yellow flowers, against lush grassy background with larger shrubs, all enclosed within two columns.

Twenty lines of gothic text on recto and verso with yellow highlights, two two-line initials, fifteen one-line initials in gold on alternating red and blue grounds, line fillers of gold on red and blue grounds, and others shaped like branches, some wear to colour in miniatures, thumbed at fore-edge.

France (Paris or Tours?), 1500.

£1,500.00

An attractive leaf on vellum from a Book of Hours with full floral borders on each side and two, playful and unusual miniatures at the foot of each page. Like many forms of such marginalia they bear no relation to the text above, and their role here is unclear. Perhaps they represent a world turned upside down, in which anthropomorphised creatures behave as humans and the natural order of things is inverted; but they do so contained safely within the marginal borders, like gargoyles on a church facade, kept away from the sacred interior.

Well thumbed, rubbing and wear to verso.

Stock No.

258560

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Single leaf on vellum from Book of Hours.

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