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Leaf Containing Psalm 40 from an Illuminated French Book of Hours (c.1480)

But thou, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up again

Detail.  Full images below. 

Psalm 40 from an original French medieval Book of Hours beautifully illuminated on both sides in the 15^th century (c 1480).  15 lines of text on each side written in Latin with brown-black ink in gothic script on vellum.  9 embossed illuminated single-line ornate initials in burnished gold, red, and blue with white tracery & 5 line fillers in burnished gold, red, blue, with white tracery.  Slight staining and minor smudging of ink on the final line of the hair side.  Overall, a remarkably bright leaf.   

Size: 162 x 123 mm (approx 6.5 x 4.8 inches); justification: 92 x 60 mm.   

$ 300                                                        # IMC5126

Frame available for this item.

Ego dixi Domine miserere mei sana animam meam quoniam peccavi tibi.  Inimici mei dixerunt mala mihi quando morietur et peribit nomen eius.  Et si ingrediebatur ut videret vane loquebatur cor eius congregavit iniquitatem sibi egrediebatur foras et loquebatur.  In id ipsum adversum me susurrabant omnes inimici mei adversus me cogitabant mala mihi.  Verbum iniquum constituerunt adversus me numquid qui dormit non adiciet ut resurgat. Etenim homo pacis meae in quo speravi qui edebat panes meos magnificavit super me subplantationem. Tu autem Domine miserere mei et resuscita me et retribuam eis.

I said: O Lord, be thou merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.  My enemies have spoken evils against me: when shall he die and his name perish?  And if he came in to see me, he spoke vain things: his heart gathered together iniquity to itself. He went out and spoke to the same purpose.  All my enemies whispered together against me: they devised evils to me.  They determined against me an unjust word: shall he that sleepeth rise again no more?  For even the man of peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, hath greatly supplanted me.  But thou, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up again: and I will requite them (English translation).