Leaf from an Antiphonary, with the Initial C ("Centum"): The Slaughter of the Innocents

This leaf fragment excised from an antiphonary corresponds with the feast day for the Massacre of the Innocents. The historiated initial depicts an enthroned King Herod, who watches as a mother in blue attempts to hold back the arm of a soldier menacing an infant with a bloodied sword. Below, the drooping bodies of two slain children trace the curved lower half of the initial “C.”