{
"data": {
"id": 130195,
"accession_number": "1952.565",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Partial Leaf from a Latin Bible: Initial I[n principio] with the Marriage at Cana, c. 1260\u20131270. Northeastern France, Cambrai, 13th century. Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; sheet: 42 x 15.3 cm (16 9/16 x 6 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1952.565",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Partial Leaf from a Latin Bible: Initial I[n principio] with the Marriage at Cana",
"creation_date": "c. 1260\u20131270",
"creation_date_earliest": 1260,
"creation_date_latest": 1270,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Northeastern France, Cambrai, 13th century"
],
"technique": "ink, tempera, and gold on vellum",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Manuscript Illuminations",
"type": "Manuscript",
"measurements": "Sheet: 42 x 15.3 cm (16 9/16 x 6 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.42,
"height_inch": 16,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 0.153,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 444196,
"title": "Transformations of the Court Style: Gothic Art in Europe, 1270 - 1330",
"description": "Transformations of the Court Style: Gothic Art in Europe, 1270 - 1330. Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI (February 2-27, 1977).",
"opening_date": "1977-02-02T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311502,
"title": "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art",
"description": "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 25-December 19, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-09-25T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 179437,
"title": "Illuminated Manuscripts",
"description": "Illuminated Manuscripts. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 10, 2004-October 2, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2004-10-10T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 196935,
"title": "The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection",
"description": "The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2010-April 17, 2011).",
"opening_date": "2010-11-06T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302268,
"title": "Devotion and Learning in the Middle Ages",
"description": "Devotion and Learning in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 4, 2017-December 3, 2018).",
"opening_date": "2017-12-04T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (10/10/2004 - 10/02/2005); \"Illuminated Manuscripts\"",
"opening_date": "2004-10-10T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, (11/06/2010 - 04/17/2011); \"The Glory Of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collections\"",
"opening_date": "2010-11-06T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The illuminator of this initial placed three small scenes one above another to suggest the vertical stem of the initial I, here standing for the introductory passages of the Gospel of Saint John, In principio erat verbum . . . (In the beginning was the word . . .). Such initials have been called \"ladder initials\" because the individual scenes were arranged one on top of the other to be read in sequence. Each group of figures stands beneath a cusped gable and depicts scenes from the Marriage at Cana. At the top, Christ and the Virgin speak together; at the center, Christ tells the attendant to fill the jars; and below, the banquet proceeds after the miraculous change of water into wine. The present leaf (actually a fragment) comes from a large lectern bible, which probably existed in several volumes because of its size. In the 1100s and 1200s, the large multivolume bible was a standard form used for refectory readings at meals or else kept in a library for reference.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79911993"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1952.565-partial-leaf-from-a"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Stoneman, William P. \"Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern Manuscripts: A Handlist of the Collection of C.H. St. John Hornby.\" In Collecting, Collectors, and the Book Trade: Essays in Honour of Richard A. Linenthal, edited by Ed Potten and Satoko Tokunaga, 364-393. Turnhout: Brepols, 2026.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 376-377",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.565",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.565/1952.565_web.jpg",
"width": "347",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "276486",
"filename": "1952.565_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.565/1952.565_print.jpg",
"width": "1321",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "4268204",
"filename": "1952.565_print.jpg"
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"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.565/1952.565_full.tif",
"width": "2440",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 130195,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1952-12-26T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1260,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1260\u20131270",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-07-29 11:09:49.651000"
}
}