3-040-094 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Decorated Initial D; Sacramentary, first quarter of 11th century. Additional Info:Medieval scribes used the size, color, decoration, and style of script to help readers understand a book's contents and sometimes to mark the function of the different parts of the text. On this text page, the initial D, the largest decorative element on the page, emphasizes the beginning of the first prayer for the second Mass of Christmas day. The letter is composed of geometric interlace and leaf forms executed in gold and silver ink on a reddish-purple ground. Next in prominence the rubric, written in gold letters on a dark ground, identifies the liturgical function of this new section of the text. The rubric's script of evenly spaced capital letters, called rustic capitals, also distinguishes it from the main text. Most of the text is written in the rounded letters of Caroline miniscule, devised during the reign of Charlemagne and used for centuries as the usual book script because of its legibility.