AN ILLUMINATED VELLUM MANUSCRIPT LEAF WITH TWO CHARMING MINIATURES OF FEMALE SAINTS FROM A FINE BOOK OF HOURS IN LATIN.

TEXT FROM THE SUFFRAGES.

      Bruges, ca. 1465 Single column 16 lines of text (17 on verso) in an attractive gothic book hand. Rubrics in pink two two-line initials in blue magenta and burnished gold undulating line fillers in blue and gold BOTH SIDES OF THE LEAF WITH THREE-QUARTER PANEL BORDERS incorporating foliage blossoms and ivy leaves on hairline stems the vertical part of this frame with a bar border of colors and burnished gold terminating at top and bottom in colorful acanthus leaves and WITH TWO SMALL BUT CHARMING MINIATURE PAINTINGS ST. MARGARET ON THE RECTO AND ST. BARBARA ON THE VERSO. Areas of paint loss in Barbara’s garment front portion of Margaret’s dragon somewhat blurred otherwise fine the gold especially bright and the margins very ample. In this delightful depiction of Saint Margaret the young saint demurely cocks her head and clasps her hands in prayer completely unruffled by the experience of having just burst from the side of the dragon who had dared to swallow her and who still mouths her blue robe. The dragon although serpentine as to his tail and back seems to have been modeled on a fat orange cat. Margaret of Antioch was one of the most enduringly popular saints invoked by women in childbirth with the hope that their newborn would issue as painlessly from the womb as Margaret did from the dragon. Barbara on the reverse is also a popular Christian heroine who like Margaret suffered for her decision to choose virginity over marriage. The tower in which her father imprisoned her in a vain attempt to make her change her mind on the topic of marriage is here shown twice. She sits in its interior calmly reading a book and beside her a miniature tower stands as her identifying attribute. $6000