Browse Items (45 total)

Sext: Adoration of the Three Magi. Typically a star guided the Magi to Bethlehem and represents Divine guidance. Melchior, the older of them, with crown removed in reverence towards the Infant, brings Frankincense in a chalice; Balthasar brings…

Christ as Man of Sorrows. Half-length Christ figure. Christ is depicted as the Man of Sorrows. References to royalty are seen in his crown of thorns and his purple garments shown below. Also below are the dice, which represent the soldiers' gambling…

Pentecost. The apostles surround Mary, who sits with a book in her lap, as tongues of fire seem to leap from the dove. The two-tiered structure of the illumination may represent the upper room where they awaited the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Penitential Psalms Scenes from David's life in chronological order: David slays Goliath; David parades with Goliath's head; David crowned as King; David gazes at Bathsheba (for another depiction of this scene, see the Manuscript case).

Judgment Day. A death scene, full of symbolic figures: a young man stands in a gaping mouth, a common image of hell. One figure holds a stake (not the typical sickle that represents the cutting off of life), another a scroll upon which the evil deeds…

Penitential Psalms. Peacock and drollery in marginal illuminations.

St. Sebastian and St. Christopher St. Sebastian, depicted with arrows, makes many appearances in Books of Hours. According to the Legenda Aurea , his relics helped stop a plague in Italy. Subsequently, he was invoked to aid plague victims, and hence…

St. John with the chalice of snakes. The Emperor wanted St. John dead and thus gave him a cup of poison. Upon receiving the cup, the liquid miraculously turned into snakes, thwarting the Emperor's plot.

Pentecost. A very colorful depiction of Pentecost. Mary quite prominently sits in the middle; divine rays descend upon them (rather than tongues; see section VI ).

Matins: Annunciation to the Virgin. The Virgin Mary devoutly kneels with her prayer book open. The Angel Gabriel, who brings the good news, holds a scroll upon which is written the beginning of Luke 1:28 -- “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with…