Illuminated initial, c. 50 x 50 mm, ‘D’ depicting the Virgin Mary praying. Her hands are clasped in prayer, her eyes are lowered, and she is elegantly dressed in a blue dress and red veil. The illumination, which is not contemporary to the leaf (perhaps added in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century) is framed in a three line initial ‘D’ with a border of liquid gold with a spraying of acanthus leaves in pink, blue, green and orange with gold discs along the outer margin of the initial.
 
Single leaf on parchment dating from the sixteenth century, c. 362 x 256 mm, ruled in pale ink, c. 240 x 167 mm (ruled), written on fifteen lines in black ink in gothic, rubrics in red, three-line initials in red to recto and verso, and contemporary foliation.
 
The historiated initial ‘D’ begins the Oratio for Laudes which reads ‘Deus in te spera[n]tiu[m] fortitudo’, ‘(God, the strength of those who hope in you.)’. A very good example, the miniature is bright and crisp, with some minor spotting to the parchment and rippling, the edge appears to be cropped, with a small chip to the lower edge, minor pigment loss to the text. There is a candle wax drip mark to the verso.
 
The historiated initial appears to be a later addition to the miniature, the red from when the initial was previously painted (similar to the other initials) is visible on the verso. It appears to have been added for decorative or commercial purposes after the manuscript was not in use anymore.