Folio 41: Illuminated vellum manuscript leaf from a book of hours in latin (Northern France - probably Paris) , circa 1460s

14 lines in a very fine gothic book hand. Rubrics in red, leaves with variable numbers of on eand two line capitals in blue with white tracery, the initials on a burnished gold ground and infilled with ivy leaves in blue, orange, and white. All of the leaves with a panel border on each side, one or both of the panel borders inhabited by an animal, a human, a fanciful creature, or a fantastical hybrid of these, the remarkably charming residents placed among admidst a tangle of ancanthus leaves, flowers, buds, thistles, fruit, and other vegetation painted inbrushed gold, blue, green, pink, and other colors. A very few minor signs of use, but generally in extraordinarily fine condition, the gold sparkling, the pain uneroded, and the vellum almost entirely clean and fresh. Vellum.