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Description
[Flanders, Belgium: circa 1460]. 120 x 160 mm. (6.5 x 4.875 in). 13 lines to the single column written in Latin in a gothic rotunda. Framed (11 x 8.5 in) with leaf visible on both sides.
Richly decorated with a large painted initial “D” in blue and rose, filled with delicate penwork ornamentation in red and white, against a patterned ground of burnished gold with additional smaller initials in red and blue with pen flourishing punctuating the text, with a profuse floral and foliate border, featuring sprays of acanthus leaves in blue and red, naturalistic flowers, berries and delicate tendrils typical of Bruges illumination of the mid-15th century.
The text opens with the familiar invocation “Deus, in adiutorium meum intende” with the response “Domine, ad adiuvandum me festina”—the opening words of Psalm 70. These verses mark the standard opening of the Book of Hours, the most widely owned devotional book of the later Middle Ages.
Condition
Clean and vibrant; a marginal illustration of a bearded man in the lower margin verso; G47 penciled in the lower right corner on verso.