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Southern Netherlands (probably Bruges), c. 1475
A single leaf (50 x 35 cm), ten lines of text with musical notation on a 4-line red stave, rubrics in red, medieval folio number (clxxxvii) in red on verso, small initials in red and blue with contrasting penwork, LARGE HISTORIATED INITIAL T ('Terribilis est locus iste ...', that used for the consecration of an altar or church), 90 x 80 mm, in blue with white penwork on gold ground, enclosing a highly detailed miniature of a bishop in the act of consecrating a church altar before a community of Cistercian monks and their abbot, the bishop standing on a ladder above the altar with one monk holding the ladder, and another behind him holding his crozier, lavish border illumination on recto, including a miniature of 'Jacob's vision of a ladder with angels ascending and descending to heaven' and acanthus-leaf ornament with bezants, various types of flower, a butterfly, a bee and four birds, in excellent condition, in gilt-edged glass frame
The miniature is a rare subject. The quality of the workmanship suggests monastic production and, as the monks are in Cistercian robes, the book must have been commissioned for a Cistercian monastery in the vicinity of Bruges, perhaps that of Ter Doest, Lissewege, which was re-founded as a Cistercian house in 1270, and survived until 1571. The artist draws interesting visual parallels between the ladder which the bishop stands on during the act of consecration and the ladder to heaven in marginal miniature. See C. Heck, L'échelle céleste dans l'art du Moyen Age, 1997, for the symbolism of the ladder in the Middle Ages