Leaf from a Gradual.
[Arezzo, Second Master of the Cortona Antiphonaries] c. 1260-1280.
Folio (405 x 285 mm.). MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. In a single Gothic hand (textualis formata) in red and brown inks, three lines of music in French square notation on four-line staves ruled in red ink, with nineteen lines of text on the recto and seven lines of music on the verso, writing frame 330 x 210 mm., ruled in drypoint, LARGE FOLIATE INITIAL IN BLUE, GREEN, RED, PALE YELLOW AND WHITE PIGMENTS, smaller pen-flourished initials in red and blue inks, contemporary manuscript foliation in red and blue inks, one later marginal note in lighter brown ink.
This fragment belongs to the Common of Saints section of A CHOIR BOOK PRODUCED FOR THE FRANCISCAN CONVENT AT CORTONA. The initial’s 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 “ribbon of parchment tinted with egg white” inserted between the letter and its internal ornamentation (Degl’Innocenti Gambuti, tr.) identify 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 long text block on the recto lists rubrics and incipits of liturgical chants for Mass to be sung on various generic feasts. The chants include Offertory, Communion and Tract for celebrations of a single male saint, single female saint or multiple saints falling either between Septuagesima Sunday and Holy Wednesday or between Easter and Pentecost. Introit, Gradual and Tract for Masses dedicated to St Benedict (21 March) and the Annunciation (25 March) are also given, noting that the Tract must be substituted with two Alleluias if the feasts fall after Easter.
The decorated A marks the beginning of the Annunciation Tract Audi filia et vide et, followed on the verso by the verse Vultum tuum deprecabuntur omnes divites and the first letters of the verse Adducentur regi virgines post eam. The first two lines of music on the recto, above the text block, are the ending of a Gradual for the Common of Martyrs: Beatus vir qui timet dominum. In nice condition (blue and green pigments faded or abraded, red pigment and some brown ink on the recto mildly flaked).
¶Degl’Innocenti Gambuti, “Sulle tracce di una scuola miniatoria 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: $950.00