This leaf is from the intriguing transitional period when Books of Hours began to be printed from movable type. To mimic the appearance of manuscript works, they were often printed on vellum, and were decorated with wood and metal-cut illustrations, occasionally painstakingly coloured.
Recto: This miniature of the Annunciation is a fine example of a woodcut that has been hand coloured after printing. The colouring is particularly fine, not the rough daubing of a cheap retail copy but the careful work of a specialist colourist employed by the Vostre workshop for premium copies.
It depicts Mary kneeling at a prie-dieu (a piece of devotional furniture specifically designed for kneeling prayer) under a red and gold canopy, one hand resting on her book and the other raised in demurral at the enormity of the archangel Gabriel’s message. Rays of golden light shine down on Mary from Heaven.
The prie-dieu in the miniature mirrors the physical object the book's owner would themselves be using while reading this very page — creating a devotional identification between the reader and the Virgin at prayer that is the spiritual heart of the Book of Hours.
The borders include metal-cuts of acanthus leaves, a comic fool, a lion-headed grotesque and an elaborate stack of vases, urns, and candelabra forming a vertical column. The coloured line filler, pilcrow and a two-line decorated initial 'M' were added by hand after the printing.
Content: The text is printed in a gothic typeface in Latin and French. The gold and blue initial 'M' begins the antiphon Missus est Gabriel from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Missus est Gabriel angelus ad Mariam virginem desponsatam Ioseph nuncians ei verbum. Ave Maria gratia plena dominus tecum.
(The Angel Gabriel was sent to Mary the Virgin betrothed to Joseph, announcing to her the Word. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you.)
It is followed by multiple repetitions of the Ave Maria in a litanic structure — the text repeats Missus est Gabriel... Ave Maria in progressively abbreviated form, a characteristic devotional pattern of late medieval Marian piety.
Verso: The four vertical border images form a narrative sequence, likely illustrating different estates of humanity (pope, king, clergy, people) all united in devotion to the Virgin.
The large bottom border image shows a substantial crowd of figures, clearly laypeople at prayer, the bourgeois and clerical faithful who were the primary market for Books of Hours. Their dress is late 15th century French bourgeois costume, the houppelandes and simple robes of prosperous Parisian townspeople.
This is a devotional mirror; the purchaser of the book sees themselves and their social peers depicted in prayer, reinforcing the book's role as a personal devotional tool.
Condition: Very good condition, untrimmed and with just the expected edge browning. The miniature retains vibrant colour and bright gold. The leaf is unconditionally guaranteed genuine.
Size: approx. 170x105 mm.
Notes: The best-known and most prolific partnership in Parisian Book of Hours production was that of Philippe Pigouchet as printer and artist, and Simon Vostre as bookseller. The division of roles was precise and complementary: Pigouchet provided the technical and artistic expertise — the press, the type, the wood and metalcut designs, while Vostre provided the capital, the commercial network, and the shop on the rue Neuve Notre-Dame from which the books were sold à l'enseigne sainct Jehan l'evangeliste — (at the sign of Saint John the Evangelist.)
Item No: PSA217
