Rouen, 15th Century

This is a leaf from a French book of hours, made probably in Rouen during the second half of the 15th century. The leaf is approximately 4.5 inches wide and 6 inches long in it's current state. It has clearly been cut down from its original size; most unfortunately, the cut has damaged the border. It is written in a very even, beautiful Batarde hand, generally in a black-brown ink, with important passages written in red. Minor capitals have been touched with yellow. The ruling lines were scribed in with a light red/brown ink and are clearly visible in all scans.

Verso. A lighter scan is here.

Although it may be difficult to discern from the scans, the initials are painted on a ground of what is usually described as "liquid gold"--a term that apparently means that the seller is not certain whether or not the paint is shell gold (24 karat gold flakes in a binder) or mosaic gold (tin IV sulfide in a binder). In any event, it is a gold paint background. The initial is painted a dark red and a blue--in a modern color context, I'd use dark carmine or Indian red and ultramarine blue. The whitework is heavily applied, with the protrusions in the bow and stem of the d built up to the thickness of a fingernail. While that mayn't seem very thick, it is a considerable buildup when you are talking about paint. The bumps can be plainly felt through a cotton glove if one runs one's finger across the surface. The flower is primarily a medium red-orange (modernly, use a cad red) and shaded with the same red as the initial and a light golden yellow (try cad yellow light). The stem and leaves are of two greens and a medium brown: try sap green hue, perm. green deep, and burnt sienna.

Recto. A lighter scan is here.

Here is a section of the border scanned. The acanthus leaves are two shades of ultramarine on the blue sections and gold paint and cad red deep on the sections that appear to be brown. The color palette in the remaining border is the same as the color pattern described above for the initials.

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Copyright 1999, Elise (Elyse) C. Boucher.