The Virgin and her parents, in an initial on a leaf from a large Lectionary, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [southern Germany or Austria, fifteenth century]

Single large leaf, with a large initial 'A' (opening Ad est nobis dilectissimi optatus dies natalis ..., the reading for the Feast of the Birth of the Virgin), in blue, with acanthus leaves within its body shaded with white, enclosing SS. Anne and Joachim in the lower compartment facing each other and united by a green tree whose branches reach up into the upper compartment, where the tree's canopy encloses the Virgin in a golden crown as she holds the Christ Child, the whole initial on gold etched with swirling patterns and within a realistic brown frame, long and thin tendrils of coloured foliage emerging from the top and bottom of the initial, these undulating and containing patches of gold between them as well as gold fruit and bezants, simple red or blue initials, red rubrics, capitals touched in red, double column of 32 lines of a spiky German late gothic hand, much embellished with hairline penstrokes, early folio no. '132' at head of recto, some slight flaking from ink on verso in places slight scuffing to gold in places, slight discolouration overall, else in good condition, 427 by 300mm.