Leaf from Psalter-Hours: Apes Dancing to Ring-around-a-Rosy

The song "Ring-around-a-Rosy" is still popular today, often danced in a circle just as we see the monkeys doing here. Yet this seemingly lighthearted song has a dark past. The plague swept Europe during the 14th century, and the song's words actually refer to its terrible symptoms: a circular rose-colored rash, sneezing or coughing, and finally, death. Flower petals were worn in a pouch around the neck to keep the smell of death away. The song, then, seems very different in this context.

Ring-a ring-o-rosies
A pocket full of posies
Achoo, Achoo,
We all fall down.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Jacques Mauze (?), 15th century [1]. Ex libris Crouzon, 17th or 18th century [2]. G. E. Street, 19th century [3]. Léon Gruel, Paris, late 19th-early 20th century [4]; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, early 20th century; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

[1] inscriptions on fols. 167r and 213v (the latter now erased)
[2] inscription on 1r
[3] inscription on 1r
[4] No. 46 on 1r