Opening page of a 17th century Spanish Baroque Carta executoria, providing geological evidence of aristocratic lineage with no trace of peasant, Jewish or Moorish blood. More than simply asserting one's high standing, such documents exempted the holder from civil suits and taxation. Carta executoria were often ostentatiously illuminated (as here), to suggest the wealth and taste of the grantee. Displays large intricate initial "D" (i.e. Don Carlos, King of Spain from 1665 - 1700) in the form of an ornate fountain incorporating fish, snakes, birds, and foliage.

A leaf from a Book of Hours, in Latin, with a full-page illumination of Pentecost (Bruges, ca. 1460). The illustration is enclosed by a wide and ornate bar frame in pink and blue with gold tracery, the frame outlined in burnished gold with floral cornerpieces in colors and gold, the whole within a full floral border filled with blue, pink, and red flowers, with blue and gold acanthus leaves and green buds and leaves as well as many tiny burnished gold dots. The Virgin and the Apostles gathered in a large room with much architectural detail--blue, green, and gold columns, gray stone walls, mullioned windows, vaulted blue and red ceilings, and an intricately detailed blue and pink tiled floor, as golden rays of light shine through an open window.

France [Valence], mid-15th century. Text displayed in single column, bâtarde hand. Rubrics in pink, two two-line initials in gold and colors, and with a miniature of Matthew and his angel, enclosed by a rounded gilt frame as well with a border on three sides, the border containing acanthus leaves, hairline vines with gold dots, and trefoils, the same border on the outer margin of the other side of the leaf. The artist here has depicted Matthew in the act of writing. Matthew sits with his back to the table and displays an unfurled scroll across his lap and a stylus held high in the air as if seeking divine inspiration.

A leaf for the month of April from a Liturgical calendar from a Book of Hours. Text displayed in single column, bâtarde hand. Three-line "KL" in brushed gold on a maroon ground, five one-line Domical letters in similar style, saints' days in red or blue (one major feast day in gold), each side with a panel border in the rinceau style, with swirling hairline stems bearing numerous burnished gold ivy leaves and berries and red and blue blossoms, the panel on the recto with a roundel showing the labor of the month of April (gathering flowers), and a roundel on the verso showing Taurus the bull. The painter of the roundels seems to have been influenced by the so-called Maître François.

15th-century Book of Hours originating from the Nothern Netherlands [Utrecht], ca. 1430s. Dutch text from the Long Hours of the Cross displayed in single column, 19 lines, gothic book hand. Rubrics in red, capitals struck with red, eight one-line initials in red or blue, verso with one three-line initial in burnished gold embellished with red penwork and extensions' full border composed of a vertical bar border of burnished gold and blue with white tracery, the bars with hairline stems emanating from each end and spreading across the top and bottom and along the fore-edge margin, these vines bearing burnished gold trefoils, delicate daisies, and pink and green buds, with the text opened by a 10-line initial "H" in highly burnished gold on a pink and blue ground with white tracery, in the center of the initial a draped flowering vine.

A leaf from a book of sermons, (Germany, 15th century) on paper, with watermark just barely visible (type uncertain: possibly "Etoile" type of Briquet 6067-6071, dated variously from 1422 to 1477 (see: C.M. Briquet, Les Filigranes, 1907, reprinted 1967, vol. 3), or handwritten.

(France? 15th-century). Text displayed in single column, gothic script, initials alternating blue and burnished gold, the formers with black filigree and the latter with red. From a Book of Hours, in Latin. Lauds / Office of the Dead. Includes prayers beginning with "Generacio mea ablata est et conuoluta est a me quasi tabernaculum pastorum."

Manuscript leaf from 15th century France. Calligraphy text appears in a single column, gothic script, with single-line initials, embellished with burnished gold. Breviary [Matins] beginning: ["Sicut adipe et pinguedine repleatur anima mea:] et labiis exultationis laudabit os meum."

A miniature Breviary from the 15th C. including sermons and readings, on 2 Luke: "sermo euangelicus qui praecedit narrat qualiter dominus centurionis puerem obentu magnae eius fiidei sanauerit, et quomodo ipsius centurionis, immoin eo gentium, extulerit fidem."Also "Eternus arque invsibilis rerum conditor, humanum genus quod per longa seculi cranseuntis sparia mortis perpetua."

Leaf from an unadorned miniature Book of Hours, in Latin, with specific prayers for Lauds which take place in the early morning hours. Text is displayed in a single column of late gothic script. Prayers invoke the Virgin Mary.

Leaf from a miniature prayer book in Old Dutch (The Netherlands, 15th-century). Text appears in a single column, late gothic script. The present leaf contains prayers for the "Heilige Jonc frauwen" Saint Gertrude and Saint Margaret. Note the scribe misspelled the girl's name as "Gertgtruyt" to which he/she/they made an unobtrusive correction. This item is unique in its collection, of the 37 leaves from this acquisition made in 2018, this is the only one on paper.

Manuscript leaf displaying a liturgical calendar (May) from early 15th century France. Text indicating so-called "Red Letter" days. Notable to this item is a handwritten genealogical inscription in French, by "Geryot" dated 1637. Source believed to be a Book of Hours.

15th-century Italian manuscript leaf. Displays very large-format Psalter containing Psalms 134 et seq. The text opens with, "Ecce nunc venedicte Dominum, omnes servi Domini.."

A manuscript leaf from 15th Century, Germany. The manuscript leaf is laid out with two (2) columns and scribed in late Gothic script. There are musical neums on 4-line staff (by the 16th-century the 5-line staff became more standardized) Breviary. The manuscript leaf was created on vellum parchment and used both red, blue, and black gall ink for the script. The leaf is labelled as page twenty-one (21).

A small and simple French Breviary with sermons, readings, and responses on Corinthians from the 15th-century. Text is displayed in 2 columns, gothic script. Embellishments are done in red and blue ink throughout the margins and text-breaking letters. The number 84 is noted on the top left of the recto.

Manuscript leaf from a breviary (France, 15th-century). Text displayed in 2 columns, gothic script of a sermon on 2 Luke and "Incipit Letania" containing ca. 60 names of Saints; identification of unusual or uncommon names can assist in localizing the MS to a specific region.

Leaf form a small prayer book from the 15th century in Old Dutch with text displayed in single column, late gothic script. The leaf in this item contains prayers to Christ who as "gheboren vander maget Marien" and also the prayer beginning "So wie dit gebet spreket heuet benedictus die xii."

14th-century leaf from a book of prayer including chants estimated to originate from England, ca. 1360. Text displayed in a single column, gothic script, the Prayer for the Departed ("Oratio. Debitum humani corporis sepelieudi officium fidelium more complentes"). Followed by the chant "Clementissime domine qui pro nostra miseria ab imporium magnibus mortis supplicium pertulisti" with numes on a 4-line staff.

(France, ca. 1350). One- and two-line initials in gold and color, with abbreviations "A[ntiphona]" and "O[ratio]." From a Book of Hours, in Latin. Hours of the Cross: Ad Terciam ("Crucifige clamitant hora tertiarum"), Ad Sextam ("Hora sexta ihesus est cruci conclavatus"), Ad Nonam ("Hora nona dominus ihesus expiravit").

An Italian manuscript leaf from the 14th century, estimated ca. 1350. The spread is laid out as 2 leaves sewn together, indicating recovery from a book that was bound. Notable is the presence of vellum strengthener along the gutter margin with a possible 11th-century inscription of Psalms 103 et seq.

14th-century prayer book origin unknown. Text includes Gregorius Magnus, Homiliae in Evangelia, 2, Homilia XXXIV (Habita ad populum in basilica beatorum Ioannis et Pauli, Dominica III), beginnng: "Sed his malispraevenientibus, quia non statim finis sequatur, adiungit."

A leaf displaying the month of November from a liturgical calendar within a Latin Book of Hours. The text indicates so-called "Red Letter" days. This particular Book of Hours was designated use of Sarum (i.e. Salisbury Cathedral) and was bound in France or The Netherlands in the 14th-century most likely for the English Market. Of particular interest is the appearance of "Euduardi Regis" referencing King Edward the III of England [1312-1377].

A leaf from a miniature Bible in Latin from France, ca. 1250-1275. Text organized in 2 columns, gothic script (texualis formata) and displays 1 Chronicles 23-25. A notable feature of this particular leaf is that the writing begins "below top line" which suggests the manuscript was written after 1230 (see: N.R. Ker, "From 'Above Top Line; to 'Below Top Line': A Change in Scribal Practice," Celtica, 5 [1960], 13-16). Note also that the chapter numbers were added later (standardization was begun in Paris ca. 1230).

Manuscript leaf from Bible, in Latin: Hosea 1 et seq., France [probably Paris], ca. 1240. Text displayed in double column, gothic pearl script. Rubrics in red, capitals struck in red, running tiles and chapter numbers in red and blue, one two-line initial and one four-line initial with extensions into the margin, both painted pink or blue with gold dot embellishments on a contrasting ground, and both with an internal scrolling design, the larger initial containing the head of a small beast, and a 6-line historiated initial depicting the prophet Hosea holding a scroll (rubbed). Margins with a contemporary correction and a few indecipherable notes in a later hand.