Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
Italy, possibly the Veneto, ca. 1425-1450
MS M.1089 fol. 18r

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Joachim: Annunciation -- Within initial D, Joachim, wearing hat, holding pedum with right hand, left hand on breast, leaning against rocky outcrop. Above, half-figure of angel. Sheep in background.
Margins decorated with border of floreate ornament. At each corner, floreate medallion, connected one to another by gold bars decorated with floreate ornament, enclosing half-figures of saints, nimbed, amid rays, including two holding objects with right hands and books with left hands; Apostle Peter, holding key with right hand and book with left hand; and Paul, holding sword with right hand and book with left hand. In right margin, half-figure of angel, nimbed, grasping vines, emerging from flower. In lower margin, four angels supporting foliate medallion enclosing escutcheon with three bends sinister white and or with helmet argent with six feathers gules and white, atop a crown or from which issues a dragon head argent facing right.