[Manuscript illumination: Initial]
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: early - mid 13th century
Dimensions:
Sheet: 285 x 190 mm (28.5 x 19 cm)
Medium: Paint, gold leaf on parchment
Object number: F.35.1
DescriptionMajor historiated initial 'O' or 'Q' (in pink) on a gold rectilinear ground with black outlining, flourishing foliate extensions of stylised acanthus leaves in pink, green, red and blue. Decorative gold leaf dots (outlined in black) commonly associated with Bolognese illumination of this period. The initial is inhabited by the hunched figure of a man, crowned but otherwise naked it would appear (set against a deep blue background); all covered in decorative overpainting which, although it seems white now, was probably silver. Latin text in a textualis rotunda script, slight evidence of a littera florissa at the foot of the fragment (in blue).