Ian Ehling
Head of Department
Lot 7
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT. Two leaves from a Book of Hours, on vellum. [Fifteenth century.]
15 October 2021, 10:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$1,912.50 inc. premium
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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT.
Two leaves from a Book of Hours, on vellum. [Fifteenth century.]
Each leaf 194 x 102 mm, outer margins filled with fine black tendrils sprouting burnished gold leaves and interspersed with flowers. (a) St. Jerome standing in a mountainous landscape under a burnished gold sky, wearing a blue robe and his cardinal's hat, holding a book, his lion standing on its hind legs and looking up. The miniature within a four-sided bar border in blue and burnished gold, 128 x 75 mm, verso blank except for owner's ink stamp (b) Prologue (in red) and beginning lines of the work known as the Psalter of St. Jerome, which is continued on the verso of the leaf. The text within a three-sided bar border in blue and burnished gold, written space 127 x 73 mm, 26 long lines, one six-line initial in blue on a burnished gold ground infilled with colored ivy leaves. (The miniature rubbed, both pages darkened, some flaking of burnished gold, each leaf with creases in the upper outer corner of the border.) Mounted together in a window mat.
Provenance: William H. Morley Middle Temple (ink stamp on verso of miniature).
This abbreviated version of the Latin Psalter, attributed to St. Jerome (d. 420 CE), translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible and a Father of the Church, was a popular addition to Books of Hours in the later Middle Ages. The two pages would have faced each other in the completed book.
Each leaf 194 x 102 mm, outer margins filled with fine black tendrils sprouting burnished gold leaves and interspersed with flowers. (a) St. Jerome standing in a mountainous landscape under a burnished gold sky, wearing a blue robe and his cardinal's hat, holding a book, his lion standing on its hind legs and looking up. The miniature within a four-sided bar border in blue and burnished gold, 128 x 75 mm, verso blank except for owner's ink stamp (b) Prologue (in red) and beginning lines of the work known as the Psalter of St. Jerome, which is continued on the verso of the leaf. The text within a three-sided bar border in blue and burnished gold, written space 127 x 73 mm, 26 long lines, one six-line initial in blue on a burnished gold ground infilled with colored ivy leaves. (The miniature rubbed, both pages darkened, some flaking of burnished gold, each leaf with creases in the upper outer corner of the border.) Mounted together in a window mat.
Provenance: William H. Morley Middle Temple (ink stamp on verso of miniature).
This abbreviated version of the Latin Psalter, attributed to St. Jerome (d. 420 CE), translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible and a Father of the Church, was a popular addition to Books of Hours in the later Middle Ages. The two pages would have faced each other in the completed book.