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

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

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