Old manuscripts: "A" leaf from a folio Breviary

detail

Isaiah, historiated initial 'A' on a leaf from a folio Breviary,
 in Latin, Illuminated Manuscript On Vellum
[Germany, probably Saxony, c.1435]

454 x 320mm, the initial 125 x 113mm. In the infill the prophet supports a book on the horizontal of the A, while a younger man beneath it holds a scroll, both those figures and the monochrome figures of Gabriel and the Annunciate Virgin in the staves point to Isaiah's prophecy of the Incarnation that continues from book to scroll; the foliate borders contain birds, a collared monkey, a pope, a cardinal and a wild man who holds a heraldic shield, azur, an imperial eagle or (marginal soiling, wear affecting figures in lower margin, some spotting, slight cropping, edges strengthened with paper strips on verso).