# Breviary of Isabella of Castile [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MINIATURIST, Flemish]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Manuscript \(Additional MS 18851\), 230 x 160 mm ## Commentary Breviary of Isabella of Castile c. 1497 Manuscript \(Additional MS 18851\), 230 x 160 mm British Library, London This manuscript is a liturgical prayer book for the celebration of Mass, destined for recitation. It was a gift in 1497 to Queen Isabella of Castile \(1472-1504\) on the occasion of the wedding of two of her children to a son and daughter of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian of Austria. The main illuminator of the manuscript was the so-called Master of the Dresden Hours, active in Bruges. One particular feature of his style was to treat the page as a solid background in which the place for the miniature was cut out, as in a passe-partout. On folio 155v a magnificent floral and foliate border frames a scenes incorporating various episodes in the Old Testament. In the principal scene the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments are surrounded by musicians and David playing the harp. <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/d/david/2/y\_adorat.html'\)" href="/html/d/david/2/y\_adorat.html">Four of the more than 100 miniatures</a> are ascribed to Gerard David. ## Related artworks - [Apocalypse]() - [Boccaccio: Des cas des ruynes des nobles hommes et femmes]() - [Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae]() - [Book of Hours \(La Flora\)]() - [Book of Hours \(La Flora\)]() - [Book of Hours of Isabella of Castile]() - [Book of Hours of Isabella of Castile]() - [Book of Hours of Marie of Gueldern]() - [Book of Hours of Marie of Gueldern]() - [Book of Hours]() - [Book of Hours]() - [Book of Hours]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()