Historiated Initial (P) Excised from a Choral Book: St. Michael and the Dragon (early 1200s): Art, History and Details

Historiated Initial (P) Excised from a Choral Book: St. Michael and the Dragon (early 1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Archangel Michael was traditionally held to be the protector of souls. His intercessionary and protective role is connoted by his combat with and subjugation of the dragon as related in the Apocalypse of St. John the Evangelist. The present initial F is a type known as an "inhabited" initial. Here, the initial serves as a frame providing a display area for figural representation within.

Object facts

• Title: Historiated Initial (P) Excised from a Choral Book: St. Michael and the Dragon
• Date: early 1200s
• Culture: North Italy, Lombardy, 13th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink and tempera on parchment
• Dimensions: Sheet: 16 x 10 cm (6 5/16 x 3 15/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1924.1009

Collection credit

Gift from J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• W. M. M. "Illuminated Miniatures in the Cleveland Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 12, no. 4 (1925).
• Ricci, Seymour de, William Jerome Wilson, Anne M. Nill, and W. H. Bond. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. 1935.

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.