Book of Hours (Use of Metz)
F-rjid
General Information
Note by Otto Ege: This Book of Hours shows definite characteristics of the manuscript art of France and the Netherlands of about 1450 A.D. It was probably one of many copies prepared for sale at a shrine to which devout pilgrims came to worship or to seek a cure. The spiked letters and the detached ornamental bar are unmistakably Flemish in spirit, while the free ivy sprays are distinctively French. The burnished metal in the decorations shows the use of alloyed gold (oro di meta) as well as silver. Various metals were added in different localities to the fine gold. English illuminations frequently had a decided orange hue, while the French had a lemon cast. The quality of the gold was best enhanced by the use of burnishing tools equipped with an emerald, a topaz, or a ruby. Less successful burnishers contained an agate or the tooth of a wolf, a horse, or a dog.
Original Condition
Current Condition
Book Decoration and Musical Notation
Florals and Ivy in gold lettering and ornamentals in red and blue. Five decorated initials on recto, one larger than the rest (12 mm x 12 mm). The smallest initial is (4 x 6 mm)
Other available descriptions
-
Simmons School of Library and Information Science (Boston, Massachusetts), LIS 464 Fall 2019 observations
Show description