Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Breviary
France, Paris, ca. 1350
MS M.75 fol. 438v

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John Baptist: Birth -- Elizabeth, nimbed, reclines in bed. Behind her, midwife stands beside drawn curtain holding infant John Baptist, nimbed, in swaddling clothes, and Zacharias sits, right hand raised in blessing, left hand holding two tablets.
Scene against patterned background in barbed quatrefoil.
In lower margin (bas-de-page), hybrid animal bites its own body and dragon bites its own neck.
In margins, foliate extensions inhabited by birds.