Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead Opening Prayers (recto) (c. 1460): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead Opening Prayers (recto) (c. 1460) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Coëtivy Master (French).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The leaf shows the life of St Alexis, a monk of the 300s. His veneration became popular in France since the 1100s when the French poem la Vie de saint Alexis was written. This text is regarded as one of the earliest examples in romance language written in French and not in Latin.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Book of Hours: Office of the Dead Opening Prayers (recto)
• Date: c. 1460
• Creator attribution: Coëtivy Master (French)
• Culture: France, Paris
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Ink, tempera and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Overall: 18.5 x 14.5 cm (7 5/16 x 5 11/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2022.102.a

A detail from the museum

St. Alexis is depicted here as a courtly person of the 1400s to bring him close to the reader.

Collection credit

James Parmelee Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bloomsbury Auctions (Firm). Western Manuscripts and Miniatures: Monday 7 December 2020 : 2pm. 2020.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.