Getty Museum

Inhabited Initial C

Date

1153

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, gold paint, and ink

Culture

Italian

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

In this breviary from Montecassino in southern Italy, an elaborate inhabited initial *C* opens the hymn for the first Sunday of Advent, *Conditor alme siderum* (Nurturing creator of the stars). The figure-eight design of this *C* is made of blocks concentrically arranged in two circles and punctuated with squares and circles of complex and vibrantly colored interlace terminating in two larger animal heads. Biting and squirming white dogs twist through the spiraling tendrils of green, red, and blue. Though this letter shares the same format as the *C* on folio 138v, the details are handled differently. On this page, for example, the illuminator has made the dogs' ears spikier and varied some of the interlace patterns.

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