Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Initial V with Floral Border (recto); Text (verso) (c. 1460–1500): Art, History and Details

Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Initial V with Floral Border (recto); Text (verso) (c. 1460–1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The word dirge, today meaning a mournful hymn for funerals, comes from the opening Latin in the Office of the Dead, seen just after the decorative letter A at upper left. During the Middle Ages, dirge became the shortened way to refer to the Office of the Dead. Although primarily recited at funerals, the office was also prayed at home as a reminder of mortality and a protection against sudden death. Surrounding the text, which contains Psalm 5, is a border decoration of acanthus leaves, believed to grow in paradise, as well as a parrot, a squirrel, a beetle, and flowers.

Object facts

• Title: Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Initial V with Floral Border (recto); Text (verso)
• Date: c. 1460–1500
• Culture: Austria (? ) or Bohemia (?), 15th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Each leaf: 13.9 x 10.6 cm (5 1/2 x 4 3/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2006.12

A detail from the museum

The Office of the Dead, usually at the end of books of hours, contains the same set of prayers the ordained used during funeral rites.

Collection credit

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.