ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT -- Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum, series of 6 miniatures, in Florentine 15th-century style but very finely painted in the (?) early 19th century, possibly retaining medieval border decoration.

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ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT -- Book of Hours, illuminated manuscript on vellum, series of 6 miniatures, in Florentine 15th-century style but very finely painted in the (?) early 19th century, possibly retaining medieval border decoration.

Six leaves of vellum, 32mo (131 x 93mm.), pasted onto modern vellum leaves (about 173 x 134mm.), with thin gold frames added to side edges of original leaves and extending onto modern mounts, written in black ink in an Italian rotunda, 12 lines in one column (justification approximately 70 x 50mm.), THREE GOOD FULL-PAGE MINIATURES BY AN UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST, THREE HISTORIATED INITIALS POSSIBLY BY A DIFFERENT HAND, ALL WITH FINE FULL BORDERS WITH PUTTI, LEAVES, FLOWERS, AND SOMETIMES BIRDS, THREE WITH BUST-LENGTH "PORTRAITS," ONE WITH A BUST-LENGTH CROWNED SKELETON, except for a very faint offset of an initial and script in the second miniature, all are in fresh condition. Bound in modern red morocco over wooden boards. (worn).

Lot Essay

The subjects of the miniatures are: 1. The Betrayal, full-page 2. Virgin and Child, small with text of the beginning of the Hours of the Virgin 3. The Raising of Lazarus, full-page 4. Initial D containing the figure of death; the beginning of the office of the Dead 5. King David, naked before God 6. Christ as the Man of Sorrows, initial D, with text of beginning of the Hours of the Passion.

Provenance: Donated by Christian A. Zabriskie to Manhattan College.

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