2-740-837 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Single Leaf Excised from a Gospel Book with Initial L[iber generationis]: St. Matthew (verso), c. 1190. The text introduced the gospel of Saint Matthew: Liber generationis. . . . (The book of the generation of Jesus Christ. . . .). The Evangelist Matthew is represented in half length holding an unfurled scroll surrounded by a meandering vine, which creates the vertical element of the letter L . To the right of the saint is the letter I . Beneath the I , the artist cleverly incorporated the letters BER (the remaining letters in the word "LIBER") to form the horizontal element of the letter L .