13th Century Psalter leaf with Rabbit - reused to hold nunnery records

13th Century Psalter leaf used to house records for a dissolved French nunnery.

The text on the leaf is of Psalm 2 from Verse 7 onwards. Psalters were popular books in the early Middle Ages, before the rise in use of Books of Hours for private contemplation. Psalters usually contained all 150 psalms, alongside a calendar and other prayers.

This adult rabbit, or “coney” as it was often termed in Mediaeval English, looks up at the word “Dominus” (Latin for God) while perching on the gold heightened embellishment of a letter emerging from lower down the page. Although decorative elements in manuscripts sometimes had limited meaning, this rabbit 🐇 would likely have had great meaning for the mediaeval reader. Rabbits were usually associated with fertility and could also be a symbol of purity when portrayed by the Virgin Mary. A coney (an adult rabbit) was also a commonly used, but vulgar, term for female genitalia due to its similarity to the Latin word “cunnus”

This psalter leaf was later reused as a holder for 18th century manuscripts at a French nunnery. The documents are interesting as they record the dissolution of the monastery in 1792, after the French revolution, and the attempts to provide for the nuns.