![]() Inhabited letters contain humans, animals, or fantastic beasts that climb, crawl through, or spring forth from vegetal forms. Inhabited Initial V: The Descent of the Holy Spirit from a breviary, Italian, 1153 The hyphen in the middle, however, which links the two parts, is the Cross, signifying the tie between Mankind and God." VD is an abbreviation for "Vere dignum et iustum est" (It is truly fitting and proper), the phrase that began many of the central prayers of the medieval mass.Ī 12th-century scholar interpreted the monogram thus: " D, enclosed on all sides, signifies Divine Nature, which has neither beginning nor end V stands for Christ's human nature, which originated in the Virgin but is without end. The rounded forms of V and D are joined by a cross with a blue vertical beam to form a ligature, or single unit, in this page from a sacramentary, a a book used during Church services. See a close-up of the joined letters V and D. Ornamented Monogram VD from a sacramentary, French, about 1000–1025 ![]() Tendril and leaf forms derived from antique sculpture are carefully woven into an interlaced design that also recalls decorative medieval metalwork. Luxurious and ornate foliage patterns glorified the sacred words in books used during church services and in private prayer.įor the decoration of this imposing initial O from a benedictional (book of prayers used in the Mass), the painter drew on a vocabulary of classical foliage motifs. Eventually, artists began to focus their efforts on these initials. The earliest decorated letters served a practical purpose: to call attention to the beginning of a text or its most important passages. ![]() See a close-up of the foliage motifs in the O. Ornamented Initial O from a benedictional, Ottonian, about 1030–1040 This exhibition examines these different letter types in medieval manuscripts and explores what they reveal about changes in manuscript illumination over the course of many centuries.Įxuberant foliage decoration within the initial D shown above marks the beginning of Psalm 26, which translated from Latin begins, "The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear?" The thick acanthus leaves and single bud within the initial, as well as the foliate sprays and pen scrolls in the margins, are typical of late English Gothic manuscript painting. Other letters contain simple author portraits or serve as a frame for scenes of important events in a story. Within the letters, fantastic figures of humans, animals, and mythological beasts clamber through the tangled foliage and occasionally transform into letters themselves. On the pages of medieval manuscripts, vines and luxuriant leaves twist together to create letter forms. Initial D (detail) from a psalter, English, 1420–1430 November 13, 2007–Januat the Getty Center
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