This beautiful manuscript leaf was written and illuminated about the year 1535. At this late date Books of Hours were also being printed in great numbers by such famous French printers as Vostre, de Colines, and Tory. These were elaborately illustrated and frequently hand-colored.
The cursive gothic script used in this leaf, with its boldly accented letters and flourished initials, borrowed heavily from the decorative chancery or legal hands of the 13th and 14th centuries. It influenced the type face known as civilite, designed by Granjon, and first used in 1559.
