# Adjoining Leaves from a Book of Hours: Penitential Psalms and King David in Prayer (2 of 3 Excised Leaves)

- By: Noël Bellemare (French, d. 1546)
- By: The 1520s Hours Workshop (French)
- Date: c. 1530–35
- Medium: ink, tempera, and liquid gold on vellum
- Classification: Manuscript
- Dimensions: Each leaf: 11.2 x 6.4 cm (4 7/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.174)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2003.174/2003.174_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

These two adjoining leaves begin the penitential psalms, or holy poems recited to ask for forgiveness. An elderly King David is depicted kneeling in prayer after having committed great sins. He has cast his harp and hat to the ground as an expression of humility and looks up to the sky to ask forgiveness. The text of Psalm 6 begins with the large decorated initial D and reads, “Domine ne in furore tuo arguas me: neque in ira tua corripias me,” or “O Lord rebuke me not in thy indignation, nor chastise me in thy wrath.”