This leaf is from a Book of Hours printed in Paris in c.1530, very likely by Yolande Bonhomme. The text is a portion of the Suffrages of the Saints - the short prayers to individual saints that typically follow the Litany.
Content: The text is printed in a lettre bâtarde typeface. On Verso, the top image beside the text depicts Saint Laurence being put to death by being roasted alive on a gridiron over an open fire. The text beside the image reads: “The deacon Laurence performed a good work — he who by the sign of the cross restored sight to the blind.”
The woodcut below depicts the legendary episode central to Christopher's cult: he carried a child across a river who turned out to be Christ himself, and in the legend Christ gave Christopher his name at that moment (“Christ-bearer”).
The bottom image of a two-headed winged dragon/grotesque chasing the three putti served as a reminder to the devout reader to not be distracted by the evils lurking in the margins but to find safety and truth in the holy text.
Recto depicts another martyrdom, that of Saint Stephen being stoned to death. The bottom woodcut is in direct contrast to that of Verso, an idyllic scene of shepherds caring for their flock. One plays bagpipes while the woman holds a lamb - a visual reference to the Virgin Mary and the Lamb of God.
The outer margin images are from “The Triumph of Caesar “- a secular, classicising marginal cycle that Parisian Horae printers occasionally used to fill the outer margin alongside the saints' suffrages.
Size: Leaf approx. 180x120 mm.
Condition: Very good /excellent condition with clean paper, sharp impressions of the metal cuts, original untrimmed margins and with bright hand applied red initials. One wormhole in the inner margin and a small water stain in the top corner. The leaf is unconditionally guaranteed genuine.
Notes: Yolande Bonhomme (c.1490–1557) was the daughter of Pasquier Bonhomme, a printer and one of four appointed booksellers of the University of Paris. She married Thielman Kerver, a highly successful printer, and when he died in 1522 she assumed control of his printing shop at the “sign of the unicorn” on the Rue St. Jacques in Paris. Following her husband, Yolande specialised in illustrated Books of Hours and in 1526 she became the first woman to print an edition of the Bible. At the time of her death in 1557, the press was one of the most successful and respected in Paris, having produced more than 200 editions. She continued to use her late husband’s printer’s mark for her publications.
Item No: PSA221
