Getty Museum

Micah

Date

about 1240–1250

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, and silver leaf

Culture

German

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

Psalters, like most devotional books, generally open with a calendar indicating the days on which church holidays are celebrated. At the top of this page, the gold letters *KL*, with a horizontal line across the *L* as an abbreviation sign, stand for *kalendarium* (calendar). The crayfish on the right represents the zodiacal sign Cancer, and identifies the month as June. The Old Testament prophet Micah stands on the left holding a scroll with a quote from the Book of Micah in the Old Testament. On the right are the days of the month and the saints who were celebrated on each one. The modern expression "red letter day" derives from the medieval calendar practice of highlighting special holy days in red ink, such as the birthday of Saint John the Baptist on the twenty-fourth of June, or Saints Peter and Paul's feast day on the twenty-ninth of June.

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