Prayer to the Virgin

Prayer to the Virgin

A truly special illuminated manuscript was manufactured in the second half of the 13th century in the Convent of St. Mary Magdalene in Verona. The Prayer to the Virgin, which also contained the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin and the legends of St. George and St. Margaret, is notable for its elaborate book decoration. Each page of the splendid work is illuminated. Altogether, the manuscript contains 78 enthralling miniatures, which closely correspond to the events in the text. This enables the reader to comprehend the touching descriptions from the lives of saints in fascinating pictures.

Illumination from Verona

The first two pages of the manuscript contain the text of the Prayer to the Virgin, one of the oldest lauds in the vernacular of Verona. The following pages, all of them illuminated, are divided between the legends of St. George of Cappadocia and St. Margaret of Antioch. The legends are decorated with miniatures, which exerted great influence on medieval artists across the world. A particularly famous image shows St. George on the back of a horse as he kills a dragon with a lance. A princess holds on to the dragon with a tether. This precise image scene was painted by the great Italian Renaissance artist Pisanello for his fresco in the Church of St. Anastasia in Verona.

Two Great Saint’s Legends of Christendom

In the Middle Ages, the legend of St. George as well as that of St. Margaret were among the most-beloved stories of the Christian world. The history of George of Cappadocia is illustrated with 55 miniatures in the Verona codex. The legend tells of how George refused to foreswear his Christian faith in spite of the Emperor Diocletian’s decree and was executed by the Prefect Dacian. The legend of St. Margaret of Antioch was also one of the most beloved motifs of Christian artwork. It concerns the young shepherdess Margaret of Antioch, whom the Roman Governor Olybrius fell in love with. Since she rejected the statesman, she was sentenced to a painful death as a rebel against the power of Rome. The tragic history of Margaret is made comprehensible to the beholder through 21 fascinating and impressive pictorial scenes in the Gothic style.