76/1822 [Medieval manuscripts]. Leaf from a Book of Hours, Northern Europe, 15th cent., Latin text in brown ink in two columns on vellum, littera textualis, rubricated, recto and verso, 33,5x23 cm. (leaf), 25,5x17,5 cm., 32 lines to each page, one 6-line historiated initial on a gold field, depicting the Virgin Mary and the Christ child, w. painted margin decoration w. i.a. branches, a bearded face en profil and a man shooting a bird, 7 large initials in various sizes, alternating in red and blue ink w. pen flourishing extending into the margins.

- Lacks a portion of the lower inner corner; partly waterstained; some loss of paint and gold.

= The scripts seems to have been influenced by the round Italian Rotunda script, visible in the roundness of the bows (i.a. in the letters b and o), the use of Uncial and Half-Uncial d and the absence of serifs on the feet of the letters at the baseline (letters m and n). However, the script keeps some of the distinct features of the Northern Textualis, like the extending of the second leg of the h beneath the baseline and the bifurcation of the top of the ascenders (i.a. the letters d, l and b). This suggests that the work could have been written in Ghent or Bruges, since these towns were important as international trade markets and large numbers of i.a. Italians were living there in the 15th and 16th century. The Italian Rotunda was widely appreciated and copied there, although often some features of Northern Textualis where, by error or preference, still used (see i.a. Derolez, Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books).