SEVEN LEAVES FROM BOOKS OF HOURS, IN DUTCH, FRENCH, AND LATIN

7 leaves, vellum: (a, b) 2 leaves, c.195x137mm, 15 lines, c.95x65mm, with parts of the prayer ‘Doulce dame’, IN FRENCH, each with illuminated initials, line-fillers and panel borders [France, c.1440s]; (c, d) 2 leaves, c.155x112mm, 19 lines, c.95x70mm,  IN DUTCH, each with gold initials with fine penwork ornament [Northern Netherlands, 15th century]; (e–g) 3 leaves, c.108x77mm, 11 lines, c.65x50mm, each with illuminated initials and partial borders, including one with the start of the Litany of the Virgin and one with parts of the Seven Prayers of St Gregory, with feminine forms (‘michi peccatrici’) [north-eastern Italy (Aquileia?), 15th century]

The Dutch leaves are doubtless from a Book of Hours broken up by 19 June 1990, when 8 similar leaves were sold in our rooms as lot 18. The Italian leaves were probably part of lot 17 in the same sale, from the same manuscript as a fragment of thirty-six leaves sold in our rooms 5 December 1989, lot 11, which included a calendar indicating an origin in Aquileia, and two historiated initials (one reproduced in the catalogue).