The Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 385
This mid-fifteenth-century Speculum manuscript on vellum, 29 × 24 cm., was written in Flanders and contains, on folio 51 verso, a long prayer in Flemish verse. There are miniatures at the head of each column of twenty-five lines, with titles above them and the source reference beneath. All forty-five chapters are included. The illustrations, in pen and wash, are very spirited and well drawn, containing banderoles identifying the persons, and other inscriptions (figs. II-19, 20, 21). There are a few decorated chapter-heading initials.
The illustration in Chapter IX-a shows three magi, bearing their gifts; one points at a very large star while another grasps his arm in confirmation and joy. The third has removed his crown and holds the lid of his offering bowl while the Christ child seems to dip in his hand. The same scene is shown in Chapter XLV-e, but in that one a flimsy manger appears with a woven fence. The child is again putting his left hand into the bowl and holds the lid (or is it a wine goblet?) in his right.
II-21.
a. The Nativity of the Virgin.
b. The Tree of Jesse.
Speculum humanæ salvationis , Chapter IV.
The Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 385, fol. 6 verso.
II-22.
c. Gideon's Fleece.
Speculum humanae salvationis , Chapter VII.
The Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 766, fol. 29 recto.
II-23.
a. The Nativity of Christ,
Chapter VIII, fol. 29 verso.