Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Book of Hours
France, Paris, ca. 1425-1430
MS M.453 fol. 98v

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Miniature:
1) David: communicating with God -- David, wearing hat, arms extended, kneels, looking up toward half-figure of God, nimbed, surrounded by red angels in arc of heaven emitting rays. Between them hovers angel, with peacock wings, extending sword with left hand.
2) David: told of Urian's Death -- David, wearing hat, holds object in right hand, touched by left hand of man, wearing hat, grasping sword with right hand, across his body, kneeling on one knee before David.
3) David and Bathsheba -- David, crowned, playing harp, looks through arch at Bathsheba, wearing tall starched veil, raising left hand, her right hand holding left hand of man, probably Uriah, wearing elaborate headgear. They stand in portico of building.
Scenes in hilly landscape with trees and bushes, windmill and city on hilltops in background.
Margins, within circle of foliage (from top left to top right):
1) Personification, Virtue: Humility -- Man, wearing headgear, his legs bare, is seated on bench, extending right leg over basin, toward woman opposite, wearing wimpled veil (?), kneeling on one knee, washing his foot. Vase on floor beside her.
2) Personification, Vice: Pride -- Man falls headlong from horse.
3) Personification: Patience and Personification, Vice: Wrath -- Woman, with joined hands, looks up toward rays; woman, wearing berbette and veil (?) stabs herself with sword held in right hand.
4) Personification, Virtue: Charity and Personification, Vice: Gluttony -- Woman, wearing headdress, with both hands, gives alms to man, right hand extended, supporting himself on short crutches; Man (?) seated on or beside dog holding bone in its mouth.
5) Personification, Virtue: Chastity and Personification, Vice: Lust -- Woman, wearing hat, is seated next to column entwined around which is snake; Woman, wearing forked headdress, is in embrace with man.
6) Personification, Vice: Infidelity and Personification, Virtue: Faith -- Woman, wearing headdress, two birds perching on clasped hands, is seated on draped chair; woman, right hand at breast, holding chalice in left hand.
7) Personification, Virtue: Faith and Personification, Vice: Despair -- Woman, arms raised to crown held by hand above her; woman, both hands holding staff, her head resting on left hand.
Margins decorated with border of floreate and foliate ornament including rose, columbine, and strawberry, and inhabited by birds; woman (?) standing beside open chest (Personification, Vice: Avarice); by woman, wearing headdress, holding mirror or shield in raised left hand (Personification, Virtue: Patience, Temperance or Fortitude).