Likely produced by a secular Northern French (probably Paris) atelier.
The parent book of this leaf was very likely a personal working copy owned by a priest, produced commercially in the Paris book trade and used daily for the recitation of the canonical hours; the essential professional tool of clergy in early 14th-century France.
The breviary contained the full text needed to recite the Divine Office — the cycle of eight prayer "hours" (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline) said daily by clergy and the religious, built primarily around the recitation of psalms, canticles, hymns, readings, and prayers tied to the liturgical calendar.
This leaf includes verses 33-40 of Psalm 118 (KJV119) beginning on Verso with the two-line initial 'L' in blue with red filigree penwork:
Legem pone mihi, Domine, viam justificationum tuarum, et exquiram eam semper.(Set before me for a law the way of thy justifications, O Lord: and I will always seek after it.)
In the medieval Divine Office, Psalm 118 was too long to say all at once, so it was broken into its 22 stanzas and distributed across the "Little Hours" — Prime, Terce, Sext, and None — over the course of the week. In both the Benedictine and Roman offices, verses 33–40 were assigned to Terce, said on Sunday.
The script is Gothic textura (also called littera textualis), the formal, angular bookhand standard for liturgical manuscripts in the 13th and 14th centuries. The tight lateral compression, biting curves (where adjacent bowls touch, e.g. in "de" or "do" combinations), and heavy diamond-shaped feet on the minims are all hallmarks of this hand at its most accomplished— the kind of script trained scribes used specifically for breviaries, psalters, and missals rather than for less formal texts.
Condition: Apart from the expected edge browning and slight loss of text ink on Recto, this tiny leaf is in particularly fine condition. The colours of the many initials remain vibrant. The leaf is unconditionally guaranteed genuine as described.
Size of leaf: approximately 130x90 mm.
Item No: MOT107
