Beschreibung:

Leaf from an early Book of Hours, with a dog dancing while a man beats a drum, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [France (probably north east), fourteenth century] Single leaf, with single column, 12 lines in an early gothic bookhand of the highest grade, small initials in blue or liquid gold with sprays of contrasting penwork which reach out at right angles from the text block into the margin and curl delicately at their tips to a spray of leaves, the text headed and footed by red and blue half-leaf shapes with similar penwork, two line fillers of coloured foliate sprays on burnished gold grounds, one human face wearing a cowl filling a small space at the end of one line and gazing down at the scene in the bas-de-page below, the bas-de-page with a musician in gold and grey robes heightened with white penwork, using a long handled baton to beat time on a drum while a dog stands on its hindlegs dancing before him, both entertainer and trained dog standing on grassy tufts created through penwork and green wash, offset on reverse from large illuminated initials on next leaf, small paper and glue marks from previous mounting, face and hair of entertainer mostly flaked away, else in good and presentable condition, 95 by 70 mm., in Perspex frame This delightful marginal scene of a musician and his trained dog are suggestive that the parent volume was produced for a secular owner, or at least a member of the clergy who knew of and enjoyed such aristocratic entertainments. It is both a record of the fascination that whimsy held for the medieval mind, and a witness to the employment of animals by the elites of the Middle Ages.