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Litany of the Saints with Spectacular Border and Illuminations (c. 1470) Pray for us |
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Detail. Full images below. |
Magnificent manuscript leaf beautifully illuminated on both sides in the fifteenth century in France (c. 1470). 16 lines of text on each side listing the names of saints written in Latin with brown-black ink in gothic script on vellum. 29 of the 32 lines begins with a bold embossed illuminated single-line ornate initials in burnished gold, red, and blue with white tracery & 24 line fillers in burnished gold, red, and blue with white tracery. Highly decorated gold and blue foliate border on one side incorporating red and blue flowers and blue and gold acanthus leaves. The text is from the Litany of the Saints or Litaniae Sanctorum and includes the names of 26 saints. Condition is near fine. Size:
129 x 180 mm (approx 5.2 x 7.2 inches); justification: 100 x 119 mm. SOLD # IMC5125
Frame available for this item. |
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The
Litaniae Sanctorum is a sacred prayer of the Church dating to its
early days. The prayer invokes God, Jesus, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, and all the martyrs and saints upon whom Christianity was
founded. It is most prominently sung during the Easter Vigil
and in the liturgy for Holy Orders.
Traditionally the names of one or more saints were chanted by a cantor or choir and the congregants would reply with Ora pro nobis (pray for us). The scribe of this manuscript abbreviated the response to simply "or". This leaf evokes the prayers of many saints including: Jacobe, Joannes, Philippe, Bartholomæe, Thoma, Matthæe, Barnaba, Luca, Marce, Stephane, Clemens, Fabiane, Sebastiane, Laurenti, Vincenti, Gervasi, Protasi, Gregori. |
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images. Please click on image to enlarge.
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