The Virgin and Child and the procession of St. Gregory, large miniatures on a leaf from an illuminated Book of Hours, in Latin, on vellum [Central France (probably Bourges), c.1480-90]

single leaf, 167mm. by 105mm., with two half-page arch-topped miniatures, each 90mm. high: (a) the Virgin seated beneath a tree (accompanying the Obsecro te), holding up the Christ Child as angels adore him; (b) St. Gregory with followers approaching a large four tiered building, their hands clasped in prayer, as a fiery angel looks down on them from the top of the building and sheathes his sword, all before a delicate gothic turret; above 16 and 14 lines of lettre bâtarde respectively, with three initials and line-fillers in liquid gold on red and brown grounds, folio number “98” in later hand, excellent condition

This leaf is from an illuminated Book of Hours produced by the Bourges workshop of Jean Colombe (c.1430-93). The scene of the procession of St. Gregory is a rare one, and the story is drawn from the Golden Legend. In 590, during the papacy of Gregory the Great, Rome was ravaged by plague. Gregory ordered a procession around the city to entreat the heavens to end their affliction, and while praying Gregory saw an angel appear on the top of the citadel and sheathe a bloodstained sword.

Colombe is best known for his completion of the great Très Riches Heures in 1485-90, and the choice of subject and some aspects of the imagery here may echo the same scene painted by the Limbourg brothers on fol.71v of that manuscript. While the artist here has made the scene his own, the detailed gothic turret in the centre of the miniature closely mirrors that in the centre of the Limbourg brothers’ miniature.