Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
France, Bourges, ca. 1480
MS M.330 fol. 33r

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Christ: Nativity -- Virgin Mary, nimbed, with joined hands, and Joseph the Carpenter, orant, kneel, looking down toward nude Christ Child reclining amid rays on cloth in wattle manger. Rays descend from above to Mary and Christ Child. Ass and ox sit beside the manger looking on. Canopied bed is behind Mary. Scene in stone or brick building supported by timbers, open at end, landscape visible above wattle fence. Text below miniature is beginning of Hours of the Virgin, Prime.