Leaf from a Missal with Two Historiated Initials: Initial P[er omnia saecula saeculorum] (A Priest Celebrates Mass) and Initial V[ere dignum et iustum est] (Ecclesia and Synagogue) (c. 1300): Art, His

Leaf from a Missal with Two Historiated Initials: Initial P[er omnia saecula saeculorum] (A Priest Celebrates Mass) and Initial V[ere dignum et iustum est] (Ecclesia and Synagogue) (c. 1300) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This leaf and others are known to survive from a magnificent missal made for the use of Beauvais Cathedral. The two large decorated initials illustrate the preface to the Canon of the Mass.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Missal with Two Historiated Initials: Initial P[er omnia saecula saeculorum] (A Priest Celebrates Mass) and Initial V[ere dignum et iustum est] (Ecclesia and Synagogue)
• Date: c. 1300
• Culture: France, Beauvais, late 13th-early 14th Century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Sheet: 28.5 x 20 cm (11 1/4 x 7 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1982.141

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Freudenheim in memory of Otto Ege

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, S. (1983). Year in Review for 1982. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 70(1).
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Resplendent Faith: Liturgical Treasuries of the Middle Ages. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2009.
• Davis, Lisa Fagin. Beauvais Missal – Virtual Reconstruction Fragmentarium (Accessed May 2021).

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.