The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 11, 2024

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Calendar Page for June (verso)

Leaf from a Book of Hours: Calendar Page for June (verso)

c. 1510
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

It is believed that medieval men and women read their books of hours aloud, not silently.

Description

On this calendar page, June is illustrated with the month’s labor of gathering hay. One figure cuts hay with a scythe while the other uses a rake to gather it. Also featured is a crab, signifying the month’s zodiac sign, Cancer. In this lavishly decorated leaf, the most important feast days are listed in gold, while other days are in alternating red and blue inks. The original manuscript containing this leaf was whole as late as the 1980s, and today its leaves can be found in museums around the country.
  • Carlton R. Richmond
    30 October 1981
    [Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 30 October 1981, lot 54]
    [Bruce Ferrini, Akron, OH, sold to Jeanne Miles Blackburn]
    -2011
    Ms. Jeanne Miles Blackburn, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2011-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 64, cat. no. 62 archive.org
  • The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours (Gallery 115 rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Book of Hours: Calendar Page for June (verso)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1510|access-date=11 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.65.b