Manuscript Illumination with Singing Monks in an Initial D, from a Psalter

Manuscript Illumination with Singing Monks in an Initial D, from a Psalter

Girolamo dai Libri

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

While one monk looks down in pious contemplation, two others gaze at the divine beams of radiating light that inspire their song. But their eyes and voices are drawn outside the frame to the text and music on the page, as if they were reading and singing from the book. Dressed in white, they are members of the Olivetan order, which commissioned Girolamo dai Libri and his father, Francesco, to create the psalter.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Manuscript Illumination with Singing Monks in an Initial D, from a PsalterManuscript Illumination with Singing Monks in an Initial D, from a PsalterManuscript Illumination with Singing Monks in an Initial D, from a PsalterManuscript Illumination with Singing Monks in an Initial D, from a PsalterManuscript Illumination with Singing Monks in an Initial D, from a Psalter

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.