Leaf from an Antiphonal.
[Bologna, follower of the Master of the Gerona Bible] c. 1300.
Folio (550 x 365 mm.). ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. In a single Gothic hand (textualis formata) in red and black inks, five lines of music in French square notation on four-line staves ruled in red on both sides, writing frame 405 x 245 mm., ruled in plummet and ink, LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIAL INFILLED WITH FOLIATE ELEMENTS IN GOLD INK AND COLOR PIGMENTS WITH DECORATION EXTENDING INTO THE MARGINS, smaller pen-flourished initial in red and blue inks, paragraph mark in blue, majuscules touched in yellow, later manuscript foliation in brown ink.
This fragment belongs to A CHOIR BOOK PRODUCED FOR A FRANCISCAN COMMUNITY IN BOLOGNA. The decorated initial is a handsome example of the so-called “second style” of Bolognese illumination, influenced by Byzantine art and characterized by the use of vibrant colors (with predominance of blue) and decorative motifs of knotted ribbons and leafy vines. THE ARTIST AT WORK HERE APPEARS TO BE A CLOSE FOLLOWER OF THE MASTER OF THE GERONA BIBLE (fl. c. 1285-1300), responsible, i.a., for an antiphonal at the Getty (ms. Ludwig VI 6). In our fragment, as in the Getty antiphonal, the extremities of the foliate decoration are marked with “a tiny gold sphere, which…releases a gossamer-thin, branching filament” (Euw and Plotzek, tr.).
The text is from the Office liturgy for First Vespers on the feast of St. Francis (4 October). The first two lines on the recto are the ending of the antiphon Hic creaturis imperat qui, followed by a short prayer to the Saint, composed of versicle (Ora pro nobis) and response (Ut digni efficiamur). After the incipit of Psalm 116 (Laudate dominum omnes gentes), the decorated O marks the beginning of the Magnificat antiphon O stupor et gaudium, followed on the verso by the beginning of Hic creaturis imperat qui.
In very good condition (the ink of text and music on the verso somewhat faded).
¶See Euw & Plotzek’s Die Handschriften der Sammlung Ludwig VI 6 and Conti’s La miniatura bolognese 39-44.
Price: $2,200.00