Calendar. The first section of a breviary outlines the Calendar from January to December. This page represents the Calendar in the Breviary of Ercole I d'Este (1431-1505), brother of Leonello d'Este, patron of the Llangattock Breviary. The month is January, identified by the astrological symbol for Aquarius and the Labor of the Month, representing feasting at a banquet. The real purpose of the Calendar is to mark the feast days of the liturgical year. In January, for example, we find the feasts of the Circumcision, Epiphany, and the Conversion of St. Paul.
Although no leaves from the Calendar as yet have been discovered, the description of the Llangattock Breviary in the 1958 Christie's sale mentions that the lower margins of the Calendar leaves had been cut out. Here displayed as a substitute leaf, Ercole I's breviary is still preserved in the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria in Modena, Italy (MS V.G. 11 = Lat. 424), accessible online as a pdf file and available in print as a luxury facsimile published by Imago in 2011. This manuscript has been referred to as a benchmark text in order to better predict the structure and contents of the Llangattock Breviary.
