The Hours of Jean de Montauban open with a dozen folios consecrated to the Roman calendar's twelve months, one folio for each month with its recto and verso. The names of the saints and the saints' days are written on these pages, line after line, from the start to the end of the year.
In these first twelve folios of the Calendar the miniatures are all found on the rectos, and in each case they form a pair. At the top is a decorated initial formed by the combined letters KL - a common feature in illuminated Books of Hours - standing for Kalens, the first day of the month in the Roman calendar. The main 'work' in January, while little can be done in terms of cultivation, is to keep well fed and indoors. At the bottom of each folio on the right is a miniature placed within a circular radiating frame: Aquarius.
The Hours of Jean de Montauban open with a dozen folios consecrated to the Roman calendar's twelve months, one folio for each month with its recto and verso. The names of the saints and the saints' days are written on these pages, line after line, from the start to the end of the year.
In these first twelve folios of the Calendar the miniatures are all found on the rectos, and in each case they form a pair. At the top is a decorated initial formed by the combined letters KL - a common feature in illuminated Books of Hours - standing for Kalens, the first day of the month in the Roman calendar. The main 'work' in January, while little can be done in terms of cultivation, is to keep well fed and indoors. At the bottom of each folio on the right is a miniature placed within a circular radiating frame: Aquarius.
