Book of Hours. Use of Rome.

Book of Hours. Use of Rome.
Florence or Fiesole, ca. 1480.
Illuminated manuscript on vellum. (BRMS 14)

Although the original owner and talented illuminator of this Book of Hours both remain unknown, the scribe who transcribed the text signed his name on folio 111 recto as “Biagio di Piero di Jacopo da Fiesole.” The town of Fiesole, located five miles from Florence, is undoubtedly where both the patron and artist also lived and worked.

The manuscript features four full-page illuminations and one large historiated initial, each highlighted with gold. The Annunciation and an initial D framing the Virgin and Child introduces the Hours of the Virgin; the Crucified Christ marks the hours of the Passion; the kneeling David in Prayer precedes the Penitential Psalms, and the Three Living and the Three Dead accompany the Office of the Dead. The illuminations opening the Hours of the Virgin, exhibited here, are particularly noteworthy. The graceful Annunciate Virgin kneels and gently crosses her arms in demure acceptance of the angel’s salutation.