Much is yet unknown on the history of this
The Book of Hours page.
A first example of a "Book of Hours" with almost the same illustrations
and borders can be found here
It was made in France, in the middle of the 15th Century. The
decorations are hand colored and further embellished with touches of gold.
Sparse foliage and a single line stem is characteristic for the French
monastic scribes about the year 1450 A.D as can be found here
The occasional appearance of the strawberry indicates that
the illuminating was done by a Benedictine monk. Fifty years earlier
the stem would have been wider and colored, and the foliage rich; fifty
years later the ivy and holly
leaves would be entangled with flowers and acanthus foliage
The beauty of the rich borders found in some of these books like this
one frequently claims our attention more than the text. In these borders
it is easy to recognize the ivy leaf and the holly, but is
usually more difficult to identify the daisy, thistle, cornbottle,
and wild stock. The monks had no hesitancy in letting these flowers grow
from a common stem
Last update : 11 jan 2001