Cleveland Museum of Art
Bifolio from a Book of Hours: Initial V with Floral Border (recto)
- Date
- c. 1460–1500
- Medium
- ink, tempera and gold on vellum
- Culture
- Austria (? ) or Bohemia (?), 15th century
- Department
- Medieval Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 452954
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
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.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection
- Provenance
- [Librairie van Loock, Brussels, Belgium] | -2006: Ms. Jeanne Miles Blackburn, Maitland, Fl, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 2006-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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