This horribly mangled item is the remains of what once was probably a beautiful Book of Hours, probably from Spain. None of the miniatures or historiated initials remain, but what does survive includes the February-December of the Calendar, a piece of the Litany and terce-vespers (incomplete on both ends and the start of each hour) of the Hours of the Virgin. The scribe who wrote this was extremely careful and talented. Every page is ruled in red ink, double lines to the edge of the membrane for the edge of the text-block and a single line within the text block for each line of text
(f.12r)
For the calendar pages, the ruling is more complex, with two additional double-lines, though not extending above or below the text block, setting up columns for the Dominical Letters and the Golden Numerals.
(f.5r)
Besides the care in ruling and preparing, the scribe's writing is exceptional. The strokes are even in both color and width and the text block is filled cleanly and evenly with no odd hanging strokes or unfilled lines. Even the letter spacing is even
(Terce of the BVM from Typ 731)
Though none of the miniatures survive, the profusion of colored and gilded initials inline, particularly the Litany, suggest that this would have been a lavish book when intact
(Litany from Typ 731)
AM
