Gothic bookhand

Ege marked it as "29. France: Book of Hours Illuminated"

Ege used tape to keep it in place. Residual tape still on manuscript fragment

residual tape on margins. Torn edge near gutter when ripped appart from original codex. yellowish parchment which is very well prepared. Hard to difference between flesh and hair without magnifying glass. The manuscript is mounted Verso side up. Recto is hair side. Ruling is in red ink on both sides. Each side of leaf has 14 lines of text. Horizontal ruling extends beyond both right and left margins on both verso and recto.

Recto: 5 initials in gold with red and blue ink and ornamental decoration. Lines 4, 8, 10, 11 (bisects margin ruling) and 12 (abbreviation beyond right margin)

Verso: Left-hand border on most pages of rinceaux with scattered flowers and fruit. Ivy and leaves. One flower uses green. Some red lettering. 5 initials in gold red and blue with ornamental design. Middle initial (12 mm x 15 mm) larger than the other four initials (6 mm x 7 mm). Lines 8-14 includsive, extend beyond margin. 

Neither sewing holes nor prickign holes are visible. There is a piece of the conjugate leaf still attached. 

The marginal decoration on the verso side consists of a long vine stem which includes a strawberry (the symbol of perfect righteousness). 

Written and decorated in northern France in the second quarter of the fifteenth century.

Broken by Otto F. Ege in the second quarter of the twentieth century. Obtained by Massey's Library Oct 27, 1964. 

Note from Otto Ege:

Book of Hours (Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis): it is generally no great task to assign these illuminated Book of Hours to a particular country or period. The treatment of the ivy spray with the single line stem and rather sparse foliage is characteristic of the work of the French monastic scribes about the year 1450. The occasional appearance fo the strawberry indicates that the illuminating was done by a Benedictine monk. Fifty years earlier the stem would have been wider and colored, and the foliage rich; fifty ears later the ivy and holly leaves would be entangled with flowers and acanthus foliage.