| A very nice example of medieval European Bookart from c 1460. This is an authentic hand-written and decorated, French leaf on vellum. This Rare March calendar leaf from a medieval illuminated manuscript Book of Hours has 17 lines of ruled text. The Large "KL" initials (abbreviation for KALENDS) are in silver (very unusual) on red and blue ground with white tracery which is characteristic of Northern France, or French Flanders, c. 1470. Major feast days are in red (origin of term "red-letter day"). Some of the saints listed include St. Albanus or Alban (lst-first martyr of Britain), St. Gregory (12th-patron saint of musicians), and St. Benedict (21st-patron saint of school children).
To the left of the list of saints' days are repeating series of letters A-G called Dominical Letters since they help find Sundays (after many appropriate calculations). At the far left is a column of Roman numerals I-XIX called Golden Numbers. The relationship between the moon's phases and the days of the year repeats itself every 19 years (see astronomical basis for calendars), it is natural to associate a number between 1 and 19 with each year.
This rare vellum calendar leaf is in excellent condition and shows some staining, flaking and modern foliation in pencil. |
