"MANICULA TURKEY DRAGON"
Milk Glass/Enamel/18k Gold /tin/copper
 
Maniculas were a very common thing to find in the margins of text, usually highlighting a passage that the scribes or writers felt was of importance. There are so many amazing Manicula designs to research. I really wish they had not gone out of style...
An  illuminated marginalia inspired ornament rendered  in translucent milk glass and finished with 18k gold detailing, tin and copper.  
 
******Illuminated manuscript grotesques, marginalia, and drolleries are the strange, witty, and often mischievous creatures and scenes that medieval scribes, often monks, tucked into the edges of their books from about the 12th to the 15th century. Grotesques—hybrid beings like lion-men, bird-fish, and snail-knights—grew popular by the 1200s, turning the margins into a fantastical menagerie. Marginalia became a creative playground where artists slipped in satire, visual jokes, and surreal little narratives that often had nothing to do with the main text. By the 14th century, marginalia—especially angry rabbits hunting humans or cats preaching—had become quite a commonplace find !