Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Psalter-Hours
France, Amiens, between 1280 and 1299
MS M.729 fol. 246v

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Christ: Nativity -- With curtains raised above, veiled Virgin Mary, scalloped nimbus, sits in a draped bed and suckles Christ Child, cross-nimbed, in swaddling bands, before Joseph the Carpenter wearing a pointed hat, seated, resting his head and right arm on tau-staff. In the foreground are the partly visible heads of an ox and an ass with its jaws grasping a drapery in a crib.To right, a midwife, wearing a veiled snood and an apron, kneels, pours water from a jug into a tub, and tests the water. Scene with patterned background within Gothic architectural frame decorated with cusps of foliate terminals, six heraldic shields, including Moreuil (two), Coeuvres (three) and Soissons (one), in medallions, and heraldic devices of Moreuil, Hangest, and unidentified person.