Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
France, Rouen, ca. 1480
MS M.131 fol. 48r

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Miniature
Christ: Nativity -- Nude Christ Child, nimbed, reclines on ground amid rays. He is flanked by ox and ass, touching His shoulder with nose, and by Virgin Mary, nimbed, kneeling with joined hands, and Joseph the Carpenter, kneeling (?) with joined hands. Two women, probably midwives, wearing turban type of headdresses, one with joined hands, are at head of Christ Child; at his feet are two men with joined hands, kneeling, possibly Shepherds: Adoration. At right are three angels with joined hands.
Scene in roofed stable with half timbered gables and brick chimney (?).
Margins, lower left to upper right:
1) Innocents: Massacre -- In landscape, two women, veiled, sit on ground holding infants, one swaddled, and are flanked by two soldiers raising swords in right hand, one grasping woman with his left hand.
2) Christ: Flight into Egypt, Miracle of Cornfield -- Two soldiers on horseback approach; a third soldier, raising knife in right hand, grasps shoulder of man in cornfield holding sickle.
3) Christ: Flight into Egypt, Fall of Idols (?) -- Five men, one wearing fur lined hat and cloak stand next to idol, holding bannered staff, falling from column.
4) Innocents: Mourning Mothers -- Nude infant, bleeding from head wound, reclines on floor flanked by two women wearing hats, one with joined hands (?) and the other raising left hand. They look up toward Herod the Great, crowned, raising right hand and hold scepter with left hand, seated on canopied throne. Four men, wearing hats stand to left of throne.