Preces Monialis – 15th Century Germany

	Preces Monialis – 15^th Century Germany The Preces Monialis is a prayer book which was created entirely by Nuns at a convent in 15th century Germany. A small, but very thick volume the manuscript is easy to hold and fits pleasantly into the palm of a hand.
The manuscript was bound to pressboard on raised cords and decorated with a tooled but not gilded brown leather cover and brass clasp closure. With close inspection you can see that the gilded lettering on the spine was done over previous stamped lettering. It is thought that this was perhaps added at a later date.
	You can see from this image that the manuscript text began on the very first page. The thickness of the book block was strikingly thick for the small size of the pages. The book block was constructed from both paper and vellum.
Flat and knotted tabs were glued into the manuscript mark frequently used sections of this manuscript. These can be seen to the right extending out from the fore edge of the book block. Throughout the manuscript you can see simple, hastily rendered versals with some minimal filigree work completed in an orange-red and green. The end papers were made out of vellum reused from and earlier work. The end paper can be seen on the edge of the image at the right beneath my right thumb.