Item Info

Script: Gothic bookhand
Language: Latin; Calendar and prayers on ff. 240r-248v in French
Folio Number: f. 57v
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes: Nativity
Notes: This miniature begins Prime of the Hours of the Virgin. Prime typically begins with an image of the Nativity, but certain details in the iconography set this miniature apart from others. The Christ Child sits up in the manger and playfully pulls the ear of the ass as a child might do to a pet. Beside the manger is a bowl of the milk soup that Joseph and Mary fed to the Christ Child after his birth according to late medieval devotional authors. These details add a poignant sense of domesticity to the otherwise sacred event.

The miniature was painted by a follower of the Boucicaut Master, one of the most prominent illuminators in Paris at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
Sirsi Catalog Key: 1540378
Country: Country:France
City/Town/Township:Paris

Creation Year (Single Year or Range Begin): 1415
Image Dimensions Width: 229 mm
ShelfMark: Widener 7
Creator Name: Boucicaut Master, workshop of - Artist