Leaf from a Psalter with Full Border with Medallions (Annunciation, SS. Jerome, Clare, Sebastian and Bernardino) and Historiated Initial (E): Virgin and Child (1475): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Psalter with Full Border with Medallions (Annunciation, SS. Jerome, Clare, Sebastian and Bernardino) and Historiated Initial (E): Virgin and Child (1475) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This leaf contains Psalm 67. The original full manuscript would have held all 150 psalms. Psalters like this were made in a large format for communal prayer. This leaf is richly adorned with an elaborate border with a historiated, or decorated, initial E showing the Madonna and Child. Around the border are Saint Jerome, Saint Clair, Saint Sebastian, and Saint Bernardino, a popular and much-venerated preacher from Siena, Italy. The bottom medallion depicts the Annunciation, or announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit. She is shown seated, reading from a book of hours.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Psalter with Full Border with Medallions (Annunciation, SS. Jerome, Clare, Sebastian and Bernardino) and Historiated Initial (E): Virgin and Child
• Date: 1475
• Culture: Italy, Umbria or Tuscany, 15th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
• Dimensions: Sheet: 57 x 39 cm (22 7/16 x 15 3/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1953.642

A detail from the museum

Saint Bernardino, seen in the lower right, was a popular and much-venerated preacher from Siena.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ricci, Seymour de. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, Supplement. New York: Bibliographical Society, 1961.

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.