Bourges or Loire Valley, first quarter of the fifteenth century

This manuscript is a fine example of early fifteenth-century book production. The miniatures, produced separately from the rest of the manuscript, were then tipped in by the binder. The calendar includes no surprises among its typical cluster of French saints, and the texts are standard--the four Gospel narratives of the Crucifixion, the Hours of the Virgin, the Penitential Psalms, the Hours of the Cross, and the Hours of the Dead. The manuscript is distinguished by the quality of the miniatures, their gold and white banded backgrounds characteristic of the Bourges region. This miniature of the Annunciation precedes Matins, the most elaborate of the Hours. Mary reads from a lectern outside a tent before her mother Anne's house (the inscription at the top of the structure in the background reads "Sanctae Annae Domnum," or Saint Anne's house). The Angel Gabriel kneels before her, his words written on the scroll he unfurls, as the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove.

Fig. 1: Parchment, 98 folios, 134 x 84 (91 x 47) mm, 1 column, 24 lines, in Latin, written in Gothic cursive script.