The Hours of Isabella Stuart

Litany with collects and scenes from the Pilgrimage of the Human Life

Texts and Images

The Litany, a series of invocations for mercy and deliverance addressed to the Trinity, the Virgin and a long list of saints, and the following short prayers (collects) are illustrated with ornamental initials on gold grounds. Every page has a marginal miniature from the cycle illustrating the French poem Pilgrimage of the Human Life.

The marginal scene, illustrating the Pilgrimage of the Human Life cycle, was painted by an assistant who used lead-tin yellow to obtain an acidic yellow hue with a slight green tinge.