Inside A Letter Box

Bartolomeu Velho, Figure of the heavenly bodies. 1568. An illuminated illustration of the Ptolemaic geocentric conception of the universe.

The ninth sphere — the Primum Mobile — was contained only by the mind of God, and constituted all of physical creation and space.  Unchanging, it is the structure in which all change is framed.  It is the outermost limit of the universe, and the beginning of creation. The spiritual motion of intention or love creates physical motion. 

Light and love enclose it in one circle
As it does all the rest, and this enclosing
He alone who circles it can comprehend.

Its motion is not measured by another’s,
But this sphere sets the others into motion,
As ten is factored into five and two.

— Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Canto XXVII, l. 112-117. 

(Source: Wikipedia)

Initial D: The Fool with Two Demons (detail) in a psalter, illuminations by the Master of the Ingeborg Psalter, after 1205. Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink on parchment bound between pasteboard covered with brown calf, each leaf 12 3/16 x 8 5/8 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. 66, fol. 56.

Master of the Dominican Effigies (active c. 1328-50), The Garden of the Virtues.  Illumination on parchment.  

(Source: wga.hu)

olio-ataxia:

more: The Most Delicate Art

(via aureliomadrid)

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry: Novembre, painted by Jean Colombe in the illuminated book of hours, c.1410.

This is the only calendar image executed by Colombe; the Limbourgs painted only the zodiacal tympanum above it.  The picture shows the autumn acorn harvest, with a peasant knocking down throwing sticks to knock down the acorns on which his pigs are feeding.

- Description from the University of Chicago’s online curator. For more about the Très Riches Heures, consult the University of Chicago’s site.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Anonymous composer, Riant regard, acompli en doulceur (Laughing glance, perfect in sweetness). The Copenhagen Chansonnier, 14 recto. France, 15th c.  Parchment, 47 ff.; 5 x 12 cm. 

The text and its translation, sheet music, and a commentary on this piece are available at Peter Woetmann Christoffersen’s Open Edition Copenhagen Chansonnier.

(Source: kb.dk)

Fra Angelico, The Annunciation in the Letter R.  c. 1430. Tempera and gold on parchment, size unknown. 

(Source: wga.hu)

A calendar page for July, from the Isabel (la Católica) Breviary. Bruges, late 1480s. The British Library’s Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Section,  Additional 18851, f. 4v. 

This calendar page for July features another unusual version of a traditional figure; the zodiac sign for Leo is depicted as a lion with prominent white whiskers and an unlikely mane.  Beneath him, the work of the harvest continues, with peasants labouring and cutting grain with their sickles.

— Unidentified Curator

Lisbon Bible, Lisbon Portugal, 1482. 

 בראשית ברא אלוהים את השמיים ואת הארץ והארץ היתה תהו ובהו וחשך על–פני תהום ורוח אלוהים מרחפת על–פני המים

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form and void ; and darkness was on the face of the deep.  And a wind from God moved over the surface of the waters. 

- The Jerusalem Bible, Gen. 1:1.2, trans. Harold Fisch.

(Source: bl.uk)

Biblia Latinia, fol.342v, (detail), Jonah. Northern Italy, 1273; illuminated vellum manuscript.