A single leaf with a four-part miniature depicting, in the top half, the Parliament of Heaven, in which God the Father, flanked by reconciled personifications of Justice (with a sword) and Mercy (with a lily) has decided to redeem mankind; at his feet the Christ Child, holding a Cross, waits to be dispatched to earth preceded by the Angel Gabriel, who stands in front of Jesus. At the lower right sits the Virgin Mary who, unbeknownst to her, is about to conceive the Savior of the World. Below her sits the Evangelist Luke, author of the Gospel Lesson. To the left is Limbo containing the just souls of the Old Testament awaiting release by Christ.
This leaf comes from Morgan MS M.1003. It is one of four miniatures that went missing from the codex sometime before 1909. The present leaf, M.1207, is the first, originally falling between present folios 14 and 15. The second, St. John and the Virgin with three border roundels for the "O intemerata," originally between folios 24-25, is now in Amiens, Musée de Picardie, Inv. MP 999.1.226, collection A. Maignan (see Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Jan Fabre: Chalcosoma (2006-2012), Hommage à Jérôme Bosch au Congo (2011-2013). Illuminations: Eluminures, Trésors enluminés de France, Lille, 2013, 198, no. 7). The third, Flight into Egypt for Vespers of the Hours of the Virgin, originally between folios 97-98, is untraced. The fourth, Trinity for the Seven Requests to Our Lord, originally between folios 217-218, is in a New York private collection.
Associated text: Luke 1:26-30, the first part of Luke's standard Gospel Lesson that traditionally appears in Book of Hours (Luke 1:26-38).
Decoration: 1 four-part miniature surrounding the incipit of the text on the recto (text continues on the verso).
Artist: Master of Jacques de Luxembourg.