2-999-324 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Letter A, the Beaupré Antiphonary (Volume I), 1290. Illuminated initial depicting the Resurrection: Christ rises from the tomb, (top); the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalen find the discarded shroud. One of eighteen extant large historiated initials, flourished and decorated initials from a richly illuminated Cistercian manuscript. An abundance of amusing drolleries facilitate a liturgical narrative within the text. However, additions and removals within the text and imagery tells much about the use and history of the manuscript. The liturgical contents of this volume provide musical settings from Easter to the Assumption of the Virgin. This manuscript is the first of a set of three volumes destined for use on the abbess' side of the choir at the Cistercian abbey of Sainte-Marie at Beaupré (diocese of Cambrai).