"This portrait on vellum (112 x 77 mm), is composed of hundreds of microscopic words, adjoining into a hymn for the saint. ""Si quaeris miracula..."" (If Thou Seekest Miracles) in honour of St. Anthony of Padua. Only legible with a good magnifying glass. Antonius is invoked daily to help people find things that they have misplaced. We add a big enlargement (40 x 26 cm) by the photographer Stephen Sack"
This sequence was once very popular devotion to St Anthony as a wonder-worker. The devotion touches on some of the events in the life of St Anthony and some of the more famous miracles attributed to him. The text is sometimes attributed to the Seraphic Doctor, St Bonaventure (1218-1274). Micrography (from the Greek 'micrographia,' meaning small writing) is an art form first developed by Jewish scribes in Egypt and Israel around the 9th Century. Traditionally, Jewish artists were banned from drawing images of living creatures. However, rabbinical rulings permitted forms that might optically appear to be of banned subjects to be constructed, as long as they were composed entirely of calligraphy. During the early modern age in Central Europe, following the influence of Jewish artists, micrography was picked up by a small number of Christian artists
