Book of Hours Leaf

I was able to examine this leaf by temporarily purchasing it. The description in the catalogue read: English, 15th century, Catholic Book of Hours after Henry VIII! Or something along these lines. I ordered the leaf in the hope that it would be written in an English bastarda hand.

Alas, the leaf is written in a standard gothic textura. As the leaf was not what I was hoping it would be, I returned it to the dealer; if you would like to purchase it, contact Foliophiles. While I do not doubt that it is a leaf from a book of hours that survived the Henrician Reformation, based on the look of the leaf, I'd suggest that the leaf may also be of French origin, possibly 15th century, made expressly for export to England.

The dimension of the leaf is about 69 mm wide by 106 mm long (2 11/16"x 4 1/8"), with a text area of about 40mm x 58 mm. The leaf does not appear to have been cut down from a larger dimension. It is in very good shape. The ink is black-brown; the initials are alternating Ultramarine with Carmine tracery and Gold (applied by mordant gilding) with Indigo tracery. The gold/indigo combination is a little unusual, but I assure you that this is the correct color combination. There is a very faint set of ruling lines; a modern description of the appearance might be sepia color, very watered down, and applied with a ruling pen. The lines are so light that they barely show up on the scan. The text x-line height is about 3mm, with the ruling lines about 3.5 mm apart. The leaf weighs 7cg.

Recto and verso of leaf.

Detail from recto.

Note the gold initial with indigo tracery.

The ruling lines can be faintly perceived in this close-up.

Also of interest in this detail: note that the calligraphy is slightly uneven in its execution. The hand is lovely, but even excellent scribes showed slight variation in letter size and spacing. This is a hallmark of handwriting rather than typesetting a book. Thus, all you scribes out there, don't despair if you can't get the lettering PERFECT.

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