The Macclesfield Psalter
Office of the Dead
Texts and Images
Recited while mourning the dead body at home and during the service in church before the burial, the Office of the Dead was also a text for private devotion.
The first two of its three liturgical hours, Vespers and Matins, open with large historiated initials containing scenes related to mortality, complete with full bar borders. Lesser text divisions are signalled by smaller ornamental initials, most with foliate motifs.