Leaf from a Psalter: Initial D: A Fool Rebuked by God

c. 1300–1320

Northern France or Flanders, St. Omer or Thèrouanne, 14th century

Medium

ink, tempera and gold on vellum

Measurements

Leaf: 10.7 x 7.8 cm (4 3/16 x 3 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2011.55

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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.