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IM-3376: (275x200mm – 10 ¾ x 7 7/8’’) Original leaf from a medieval manuscript Breviary of the highest quality. 30 lines of ruled text in double columns, written in Latin with dark brown and red ink in fine gothic rotunda script on animal vellum. Six two-line initials in gold on blue or rust ground with delicate gold tracery; four one-line initials decorated in blue with red pen-work. A fluted architectural column ornament is in the central margin, terminating in a sprays of flowers, fronds, and foliage in green, brown, pink, red, blue, white and gold; Marginal panels on either side, the full height of the text, consist of similar ornamentation with the verso inhabited by a bird. (For sister leaves see Weick, Late Medieval…Manuscripts, 1983 and Rendell, The Medieval World, 141 & 142).     Italy, Ferrara c. 1441-1448.

This leaf comes from what was once called the Llangattock Breviary after Baron Llangattock of the Hendre, Monmouth. The manuscript was purchased in 1958 and dismantled by Goodspeed’s of Boston. Philip Hofer purchased the largest portion – the first gathering with 10 leaves. The manuscript is now known to be The Breviary of Leonello d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. According to estate records it was illuminated between 1441 and 1448 by Giorgio d”Alemagna, Guglielmo Giraldi, Magnanimo, Matteo de Pasti and Bartolomeo Beninca.