The Folios - f.104r
The Hours of the Virgin (Compline) - historiated initial
The beginning of the office for the hour of Compline is marked by a historiated initial. The scene in the initial is the Flight of the Holy Family into Egypt to escape Herod's Massacre of the Innocents and derives from the scriptural account in Matthew 2.13-23. The artist belongs to the 'Cholet Group' of Parisian illuminators. The very fine scrolls painted in gold paint on the burnished gold background are a feature found in only a small number of luxurious manuscripts of the late 13th century such as the Alphonso Psalter in the British Library and the Breviary of Philippe le Bel in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The enigmatic scene in the lower margin shows man in working clothes holding rectangular block on his shoulder and running in shot-putter's pose towards tonsured cleric in long academic(?) gown (mason throwing block of stone or book at cleric?).
Zoom and pan this folio