Leaf on vellum from a manuscript Book of Hours.

A beautiful leaf from a French Book of Hours, written about 1485. Part of the Book was in The Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library, St. John?s Seminary, Camarillo, California.
The decorations are wonderful : in the margins flowers, leaves, acanthus leaves. In the text are initials [four are two-liners!! ] and line fillers in red and blue with lots of gold, sparkling as if it were applied and polished yesterday!!
The text is from the Litany of many Saints, and to give you an idea how the medieval scribes worked, here is the transcription and translation of part of the text on the verso:CONCEDE Misericors deus fragilitati nostrae praesidium, vt qui sanctae tuae genetricis memoriam agim u s : intercessionis eius auxilio a nostris iniquitatibus resurgamus.
Grant aid, O merciful God, unto our fragility: that we which make memory of thine holy mother: may by the help of her intercession arise from our iniquities.

Reference: hb51