Psalm 23: "For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..."
Recto: 14 lines of text in Latin written on vellum in an accomplished rounded gothic bookhand, Ruled in red and rubrics in red. One two-line illuminated initial ‘D’ in liquid gold on a blue ground with white penwork and outlined in black, and one versal initial in red & gold. Extending from the initial 'D' into the margin are green tendrils bearing leaves and coloured flowers.
Verso: 14 lines of text with five versal initials in liquid gold on blue and red grounds.
Origin: France.
Date: c.1475.
Content: The text is from the Office for the Dead, Matins, Second Nocturne. The rubric “Ps” on the ninth line of Recto indicates the beginning of Psalm 22 (KJV 23) at the illuminated initial ‘D’:
Dominus regit me, et nihil mihi deerit: in loco pascuae ibi me collocavit.
Super aquam refectionis educavit me: animam meam convertit.
Deduxit me super semitas iustitiae: propter nomen suum.
Nam et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis: non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.
Virga tua, et baculus tuus: ipsa me consolata sunt.
(Our Lord ruleth me, and nothing shall be wanting to me: in place of pasture there hath he placed me.
Upon the water of refreshing there he hath brought me up: he hath converted my soul.
He hath conducted me upon the paths of Justice: for his name.
For although I shall walk in the midst of the shadow of death: I will not fear evils, because thou art with me.
Thy rod, and thy staff, they have comforted me.)
The psalm continues on Verso.
Condition: The leaf is in excellent conditionI. It is unconditionally guaranteed genuine.
Size: Leaf: approx. 90x65 mm.
Notes: The extremely small size of this leaf can be explained thus: Medieval piety involved substantial elements of public display, and the small but emergent urban bourgeoisie, mostly merchants or administrators in the growing royal bureaucracies were intent on imitating their superiors. So the Book of Hours became something of a chic devotional accessory, especially for women, an incongruity that occasionally attracted disapproving comment. Eustache Deschamps, the great French poet of the late 14th century, put his satire into verse when he imagined the thoughts of a bourgeois lady who yearns for a Book of Hours that "is as graceful and gorgeous as me... So the people will gasp when I use it, That's the prettiest prayer-book in town.”
The Office of the Dead (its old name was Office for the Dead) was in the back of every Book of Hours the way death itself was always at the back of the medieval mind. While the name may conjure images of grief and decay, in fact praying The Office was an act of love. It was the cause of considerable anguish for medieval men and women to think of the potentially long periods of time their relatives would spend in the painful fires of purgatory. Along with the funding of funerary Masses, praying the Office was considered the most efficacious means of reducing this fiery price of obtaining paradise. These aids were essential, because only the living could help the dead. The Office of the Dead includes a moving series of readings from the Old Testament Book of Job. The trials endured by Job become an allegory for one's time on earth, or one’s relatives in purgatory.
Item No: MBH197
