The Art of Illumination

This boxed set celebrates the book art of the late Middle Ages and presents five leaves under passe-partouts from four splendid prayer books. Two miniatures, the Arrest of Jesus and Ecce Homo come from the Herrenalb Prayer Book, a German manuscript created between 1482 and 1484 with 30 wonderful miniatures based on copperplate engravings from various masters. A Pentecost scene from the Book of Hours of the Weaving Virgin, created in France ca. 1450, is presented in an elegant frame of golden and brightly colored filigree tendrils. Created sometime between 1450 and 1475, the Book of Hours of the Altarpieces is a Flemish manuscript, which has contributed a miniature page with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. The final specimen is a splendidly adorned text page with a small portrait of Christ and a bright blue frame filled with gilded acanthus leaves, flowers, fruits, and a butterfly from the Book of Hours of the Bishop Morgades, a compendium assembled in the 19th century from various Flemish and Spanish manuscripts dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.