English illuminated manuscript page, ca. 1450.... Lot 514

English illuminated manuscript page, ca. 1450. From a book of hours. Ink and gold leaf on vellum. With 14 lines of ruled text in Latin with alternating initials in blue and burnished gold with contrasting red and blue penwork. The large two-line initial in gold on a blue and red ground with delicate white tracery. In a fine gothic textura script. One side with Psalm 23:8-10 and the other begins with an Antiphon and Versicles including the beginning of Lesson I from the Hours of the Virgin, Hour of Matin. These books of hours are somewhat uncommo as King Henry VIII, in 1533, decreed that books relating to the practices of the Church of Rome should be destroyed. Most of the remaining examples were held secretly in private hands. Sight; height: 4 in x width: 2 3/4 in. Framed; height: 11 in x width: 8 1/2 in x depth: 1 in.