Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Psalter-Hours
France, Amiens, between 1280 and 1299
MS M.729 fol. 268r

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1) Magi: before Herod the Great -- In initial D decorated with geometric ornament, diapered background and foliate spandrels, the crowned eldest magus, beside two crowned magi, holds a vessel in his left hand, and with his right hand raised points to Herod the Great, crowned, holding the handle of a sword in his right hand and raising his left hand, and seated with his legs crossed on a bench.
2) Margins - Rectilinear bars decorated with interlace and foliage, enclosing five heraldic shields, including Count of Grandpré, Hangest, and Count of Soissons, and inhabited by a standing rabbit blowing a hunting horn and a dog biting buttocks of a fallen man (burlesque, hunting), a vessel (pot) concealing the head of a goose, a hybrid animal playing a fantastic fiddle with a jawbone, a hybrid man wearing a hat, with a pail in left hand and a rod in right hand, drawing one of three fishes from water, and a bird.