[LIVRE D'HEURES - ENLUMINURES] Fragments recto verso des heures de la Vierge à l'usage de Rome/Dié(?)

Recto verso fragments of a manuscript book of hours on parchment with sumptuously illuminated full-page borders. This compartmentalized division of ornaments is representative of the production of Rouen and Parisian workshops at the turn of the 16th century.

Two illuminated pages on a recto verso leaf: border divided into bands decorated with floral motifs and foliate scrolls, gilt initials painted in alternating red and blue and rubrics.
The richness of the illumination characterizes these liturgical books intended for laypeople. Books of hours were at the time jewels of piety, both an instrument of religious practice and a social statement affirmed by the richness of the artists' work. A veritable small painting, this leaf is probably extracted from a luxurious volume where each page was carefully painted.
We find here a fragment of the hours of the Virgin between the end of the office of vespers and the beginning of compline. The succession of pieces at the end of vespers approaches the use of Die but the capitulum differs "Egredietur virga radice iesse et flos de radice eius ascendet", this could also be a minor Roman use as the rubric of the announcement of vespers announced it.
Writing called cursiva libraria in long lines. Witness to the formalization of cursive writing at the dawn of the French Renaissance, this writing is emblematic of the production of French copyists for laypeople during the period.