This is a small, delicate, almost jewel-like manuscript made in Bruges for an Italian collector and illustrated by one of the major hands of the so-called Masters of the Gold Scrolls. As a wealthy trading town, Bruges was frequented by influential Italian representatives, merchants, bankers and financiers. Wealthy families like the Venetian Zane family, who ordered the book at hand, had prestigious commissions made in Bruges and brought them back home to Italy. A prominent example of such a practice is evidenced, for instance, with the Portinari altarpiece that Hugo van der Goes created for San Egidio in Florence. In case of this manuscript, the commission was a much more private and portable devotional artwork that was ordered by a bibliophile Venetian patron. The nationality of the patron also impacted the overall aesthetic of the manuscript: its colours are more vibrant and playful than what is usually to be expected from Flemish manuscripts of the period.
The miniatures in this manuscript can be attributed to the Masters of the Gold Scrolls group. One of the most important Bruges workshops, this atelier preceded that of the renowned Willem Vrelant, who emerged from their idiosyncratic style. The Masters of the Gold Scrolls, active in Bruges during the 1420s-1440s, had an immense influence on book art in Flanders. The workshop was named after the delicate, feathered, scrolling foliage painted with liquid gold on burgundy-red ground, which was frequently used and is easy to recognise. Also characteristic for the workshop are the sweet, soft faces with rounded chins. The figures are drawn with fine precision: their gestures are somewhat subdued and special attention is devoted to the depiction of hair, often rendered with bright yellow strands on brown. The fine, diligent handling of paint as well as the palette dominated by red, blue, and green with elaborate use of gold in the marginal decorations together offer one of the most attractive manuscripts in the so- called Golden-Scrolls style.
This small manuscript is a jewel of Flemish manuscript illumination, embodying the fusion between Flemish manuscript illumination and distinguished Italian taste.