de Beer Collection were gifted to the University Library by Willi Fels. This delicate Italian manuscript is a Book of Hours, a religious work that contains a selection of short Offices, prayers and devotions, and a liturgical calendar. Books of Hours are the most numerous survivors of medieval manuscripts; almost every good household owned one. The text of this mid-fifteenth century (c.1450) work is all hand-written on fine vellum (treated calf skin). The blue and red rubrication is present, and the leaf displayed has a sliver of real gold in one initial.]]> Catholic Church]]> Manuscripts]]> ]]> Catholic Church]]> Missal is impressive, with its detailed engraved initials, the printed music, and its printing in red and black. Externally it is equally impressive. The decorative brass bosses and clasps are intact, as too the green silk page-markers. Usually ten bosses were fastened: one on each corner, and one in the middle of each cover. Bosses not only provided ornamentation, but also prevented the cover (in this instance goatskin) from being scratched. This Missal has also been gauffered (Fr. Tranches ciselées), a repeat pattern delicately tooled on the edge of a book and here just visible among the faded gilding.]]> Catholic Church]]> Missal is impressive, with its detailed engraved initials, the printed music, and its printing in red and black. Externally it is equally impressive. The decorative brass bosses and clasps are intact, as too the green silk page-markers. Usually ten bosses were fastened: one on each corner, and one in the middle of each cover. Bosses not only provided ornamentation, but also prevented the cover (in this instance goatskin) from being scratched. This Missal has also been gauffered (Fr. Tranches ciselées), a repeat pattern delicately tooled on the edge of a book and here just visible among the faded gilding.]]> Catholic Church]]>