Ornate initial letter “W” with silhouettes of naked womendetails

Ornate initial letter “W” with silhouettes of naked women

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This ornate capital letter W has a long vertical tail or stem of trellis-work beneath the letter, which is an “inhabited initial” with two women inside it. One of the women, who are drawn as dark shaded silhouettes and face each other, is holding a large shallow bowl. The other woman pours a jug or ewer of liquid into the bowl. it is possible that behind the jug there is a pomegranate. The other initials in this series are religious in nature, so I suspect a libration is involved.

In the book, the large black letter W is five lines of text high, and the stem is another eight and a half lines, giving a total (of course) of thirteen and a half lines. The top of the arms of the “W” lines up with the tops of the capital letters on the first line and the points at the base of the “W” line up with the baseline on which the letters sit on the fifth line.

letterw, initials, inhabited initials, women, nudity, religion, sacrifice, rituals

161-initial-letter-w-naked-women-q75-86x200.jpg

Buy from: alamy.com

23128 dots per inch (approximately)