About the Glencairn inhabited initial

Inhabited initial H to Exodus
Cutting from a Bible, 1150

France, Champagne or Burgundy, c. 1150
Glencairn Museum, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, 07.MS.632

This lower-case h is difficult to see because it is hidden within a trellis of vine scrolls that spiral so hypnotically, you almost overlook the half-length man and stylized beasts (we found four) tangled within them.

This inhabited initial was elaborately decorated because it opened the Book of Exodus in what was once a large, splendid monastic Bible. It was made around 1150, making it 300 years older than the other pages illustrated in this section.

Certain types of illuminated manuscripts were very large. The huge size of these books contributed to their destruction. In nineteenth-century Europe, high import taxes, computed by weight, were placed on books. In order to avoid this tax, dealers and collectors often cut out the illuminated and decorated pages. When an entire page with all its miniatures, marginalia, capitals and calligraphy was removed it is referred to as a leaf. A cutting is usually a miniature painting with no calligraphy. In the case of this cutting, the miniature painting is the inhabited initial h.

Vellum
Cutting: 6-1/8 x 6-1/4 inches (168 x 159 mm)
Latin, transitional Gothic bookhand
Text Identification: Exodus

Leaves of Gold catalog entry #1

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