Cow, from a scientific manuscript

This detached folio from an illustrated manuscript includes text and a painting of a cow stooping for a drink near a riverbank on its recto, and a page of text on its verso. The text appears to be of a pre-modern 'scientific' nature in which different scholarly authorities are cited in support of a description of animal and plant types. In the case of this folio, the text describes different types of birds, and quotes at least two sources for its information. The painting of the cow does not relate to the text on either side of the folio and it probably illustrates the discussion on the previous page (missing here) of the originally bound manuscript.

The text is written in Persian (and includes several words in Arabic); it is written in nastaliq style of calligraphy, which was developed during the fifteenth century and which subsequently became used as the standard script for literary texts. The words in red pigment on the recto indicate the beginning of a new section on the sixth type of bird. The fine painting of the cow, occupying the upper third of the page block, is delicately rendered with considerable attention to anatomy and details of the animal's black and white coat. Background elements of the verdant yet rocky riverbank are executed in a broad palette that includes pinks, purples, browns, yellows and several shades of green.