This is an example of the illuminators humour-at-the-edge, from part of the Ramsey Psalter. This page presents the text of Psalm 101:21-9 and Psalm 102. Psalm 101:27 has been omitted by the scribe in error and inserted at the bottom of the page. The text correction is indicated graphically as follows.
On the right, at the end of verse 26, a hand holds a flask from which a stream of liquid pours down into a bowl held by a bald-headed, bare-chested beggar-grotesque, who lies at the end of the line to be inserted. To the left , at the beginning of the verse to be inserted, two mice stand on a plant sprig, holding the end of a rope on which a third mouse is crawling. The upper end of the rope is tied round the neck of a cat, seated in the margin at the point where the omitted verse 27 is to be inserted. Thus, a visual joke is made out of alerting the reader to the need to insert the omitted verse when reading.
Picture data
Media: manuscript
Date: 14th Century
Owner/location: Abbey of St Paul/Lavantthal Austria
Catalogue/information: Abbey of St Paul-in-Lavantthal Austria, fol 108v
