Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
France, Amiens, ca. 1480
MS M.198 fol. 40r

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Christ: Nativity -- Virgin Mary, nimbed, with joined hands, and Joseph the Carpenter, wearing hood, with purse at waist, with hands raised, both kneel flanking Christ Child, nude, laying on straw (?) on floor of shed with dormer window. Ox and ass witness scene from behind low wall. Midwife (?), wearing veil or headdress, exits scene through arched doorway.
Margins with floreate and vinescroll ornament, in chevron-patterned bands, inhabited by bird and moth.