Beschreibung:

Calendar from an illuminated Book of Hours, with miniatures of the occupations and zodiac symbols, in French, manuscript on parchment [northern France (Paris), c. 1480-90] Twelve leaves (two complete gatherings), entries in liquid gold, bright blue and muted pink, one-line initials in liquid gold strokes on blue or burgundy grounds, each page opening a month with three-quarter decorated borders in an array of designs (sprays of foliage and acanthus leaves on dull gold, burgundy or blank parchment shapes, including lobed leaves on woody stalks for March, scallop shells for April, and a lattice like series of boxes including flowers for May), with ‘KL’ initials in white or dull gold on coloured grounds, small square miniatures at the head of each column (January: bearded man seated at a table and Aquarius; February: man warming his feet by a fire and Pisces as three fish in a river; March: man planting leafless saplings and Aries as a white ram; April: noblewoman seated in a garden and Taurus as a bull; May: nobleman in a wood with a hawk on his hand, and Gemini as two naked twins seated in bushes; June: peasant with a scythe and Cancer; July: peasant cutting corn by hand and Leo as a smiling lion; August: threshing corn and Virgo; September: treading grapes and Libra as a hand holding scales; October: sowing seeds and Scorpio; November: beating the oak trees to feed the pigs with acorns and Sagittarius as a centaur; December: baking in a large stone oven, and Capricorn as a goat emerging from a shell), the text pages on the reverses of these leaves with a single decorated border panel, gold script flaked away in places, slight losses to paint from base of a few leaves, first leaf somewhat scuffed and thumbed (but legible), 160 by 105mm.