The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 16, 2024
Leaf from a Psalter: Initial D: A Fool Rebuked by God
c. 1300–1320
Leaf: 10.7 x 7.8 cm (4 3/16 x 3 1/16 in.)
Location: not on view
Description
The decorative marginal outgrowths, or extenders, of this initial include an assortment of drolleries—grotesque, often hybridized little figures that typically engage in amusing and diversionary activities. Drolleries are often shown playing musical instruments. Here one may be seen playing a vielle, an early stringed instrument played with a bow. The profusion of drolleries and whimsical marginalia in illuminated manuscripts, especially psalters, became increasingly popular around 1300, a phenomenon that has been much analyzed by scholars. Probably produced for a pious lay clientele, the margins of these tiny psalters are filled with endlessly varied and often highly animated animals, persons of every occupation (including clerics), hybrids, and monsters. Their function was often satirical and was clearly meant to amuse and give enjoyment. They may have also functioned as a kind of visual cue, enabling a book's user to locate specific pages and texts.- [Bruce Ferrini, Akron]
- Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 24, cat. no. 16 archive.org
- The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 1999-February 27, 2000).CMA, 19 December 1999 - 27 February 2000, The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, cat. 16, illus. p. 24.
- {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Psalter: Initial D: A Fool Rebuked by God|url=false|author=|year=c. 1300–1320|access-date=16 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.55