Getty Museum

Inhabited Initial E

Date

1153

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, gold paint, and ink

Culture

Italian

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

Marking the beginning of a new section of prayers in this breviary from Montecassino in southern Italy, the large, almost full-page inhabited initial *E* begins the prayer *Excita D[omi]ne quesumus potentiam tuam* [Rouse up your power, Lord, we pray]. Within the spiraling tendrils of the *E* and the circular medallions punctuating its rectangular frame, dogs curl and twist. The frame's thick, gold bars, which themselves bulge at the corners and center sides, barely restrain the writhing dogs and the vine's wild lines. Little differentiates the spirals forming the armature of the letter from those filling in its circular voids. The vine sprouts stylized leaves in a variety of different stages, from those just beginning to unfurl to those already full and extended.

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