These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.
Download this imageCreative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.
Historiated initial from Choir Books
One of two historiated initials
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Parchment, 175 x 170 mm, two four-line musical staves ruled in red ink and three lines of fragmentary text
CONTENTS:
The initial E would have opened the Introit for the Mass at Epiphany, 'Ecce advenit dominator dominus', on the original verso of the leaf; the fragmentary text on the reverse (the original recto) includes the words 'et matrem', which form part of the Communion ('Tolle puerum et matrem eius') at the end of the Mass for the preceding feast, Christ’s Nativity.
DECORATION:
Historiated initials in blue, ornamented in white, on gold ground with blue, orange and green scrolling vine motifs in the four corners: E, Adoration of the Magi set in a portico with a receding landscape in the distance
History note: Commissioned by King Louis XII of France (1498-1515) and his consort, Anne of Brittany (1477-1514); Charles Brinsley Marlay (1831-1912); his bequest, 1912.
Bequeathed by Charles Brinsley Marlay
Height: 175 mm
Width: 170 mm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1912) by Marlay, Charles Brinsley
16th Century
Production date:
circa
AD 1500
Support composed of parchment
Accession number: Marlay cutting Fr. 15
Primary reference Number: 209503
Project ID: 1357
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Manuscripts and Printed Books
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Historiated initial from Choir Books" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/209503 Accessed: 2024-11-09 00:34:55
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/209503
|title=Historiated initial from Choir Books
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-09 00:34:55|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-209503
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/msspb/msspb17/Marlay_20cutting_20Fr_15_2_201106_mfj22_mas.jpg"
alt="Historiated initial from Choir Books"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Historiated initial from Choir Books</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...
