Leaf from a Book of Hours, c. 1460s

Abstract

A leaf from a Book of Hours featuring a two-faced creature in the border. The illuminated manuscript on parchment is in Latin and comes from France, likely Paris, c. 1460s. The leaf contains a single column of 14 lines of a late gothic bookhand and features initials in blue touched with white on a gold background. There is one decorated border panel featuring foliage and fruit, with a fantastical creature. The creature appears to have the body of a bird, head of a long-horned goat, and a long-eared, toothy face like a crocodile with a yawning muzzle emerging from its bottom.