Leaf from a Gradual.
[Arezzo, Second Master of the Cortona Antiphonaries] c. 1260-80.
Folio (405 x 285 mm.). MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. In a single Gothic hand (textualis formata) in red and brown inks, seven lines of music in French square notation on four-line staves ruled in red ink on each side, writing frame 330 x 205 mm., ruled in drypoint, TWO LARGE FOLIATE INITIALS IN BLUE, GREEN, RED, OCHRE, PALE YELLOW AND WHITE PIGMENTS, smaller pen-flourished initials in red and blue inks, contemporary manuscript foliation in red ink (partly trimmed).
This fragment belongs to the Common of Saints section of A CHOIR BOOK PRODUCED FOR THE FRANCISCAN CONVENT AT CORTONA. The initials’ whimsical decoration and color palette match those of a group of codices realized in the same Arezzo workshop by at least three collaborating artists. The distinctive “muted, pinkish ochre” and “ribbon of parchment tinted with egg white” inserted between the letters and their internal ornamentation (Degl’Innocenti Gambuti, tr.) identifies our fragment’s decoration as THE WORK OF THE SECOND MASTER OF THE CORTONA ANTIPHONARIES, responsible for at least four other choir books still preserved between Cortona and Arezzo.
The leaf offers two alternative chants (and part of a third) to be sung as Introit of the Mass celebrated on the feast of a generic group of martyrs. The decorated E on the recto marks the beginning of the Introit antiphon Ecce oculi domini super timentes, which continues on the verso with the verse Exsultate justi in domino rectos. The decorated L marks the beginning of the alternative Introit antiphon Loquetur dominus pacem in plebem, followed by the first few letters of the verse Benedixisti domine terram tuam avertisti. (The first two lines of music on the recto are the final portion of the Introit verse Benedicam dominum in omni tempore, which originally concluded a third optional chant.)
In very good condition (some traces of adhesive to the top, left and right margins of the recto, bottom right corner of the verso mildly soiled and with a natural flaw in the vellum not affecting the text).
¶Degl’Innocenti Gambuti, “Sulle tracce di una scuola miniatooria aretina” in I codici miniati medievali della biblioteca comunale e dell’accdemia etrusca di Cortona 44-6; Passalacqua, I codici liturgici miniati dugenteschi nell’Archivio Capitolare del Duomo di Arezzo 97-8.
Price: $1,950.00