In the second episode of our mini-series accompanying our exhibition ‘The Margins of Medieval Art: Questioning the Center’, Sandra Hindman considers this colorful leaf.

The miniature depicts the suffering Job reclined in bed with sores covering his body. Here, the solemnity of the center (the miniature) and the merriment of the margin (the border) stand in marked contrast.

Fantastic human hybrid figures inhabit the margins; at lower right a musician plays kettle drums with two bearded faces below the waist spewing foliates. This rare depiction of kettle drums vividly evokes the secular music of Italian courts and city streets in bold counterpoint to the sacred music sung out loud from Choir Books.

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