Leaf from a Breviary.
[Lombardy], c. 1475.
4to (235 x 170 mm.). ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. In a single Gothic hand (textualis formata) in red and brown inks, fourteen lines of text on each side, writing frame 145 x 110 mm., ruled in ink, LARGE ILLUMINATED FOLIATE INITIAL IN GOLD LEAF AND BLUE, GREEN, RED, PURPLE, YELLOW AND WHITE PIGMENTS WITH DECORATION EXTENDING INTO THE MARGINS, two-line pen-flourished initials in red and blue inks, paragraph marks in blue, majuscules touched in yellow.
This fragment includes part of the Office liturgy to be recited on the feast of the Dedication of a Church. The first three lines of the recto are the ending of the biblical reading, or chapter, for Sext (Apocalypse 21: 3), followed by the chapter for None (1 Corinthians 3: 11). The long rubric instructs to read the same Common of Saints chapter at Prime, Vespers, Lauds and Terce of all the Saints’ feasts that are not assigned specific biblical readings. The illuminated S on the verso marks the beginning of the Office of St. Stephen and its associated chapters: Acts 6: 8 for Lauds, Terce and Vespers, Acts 7: 55 for Sext and Acts 7: 60 for None. At the end of the page are the first two words of the rubric for St. John the Baptist.
THE INITIAL’S DECORATION AND COLOR SCHEME, UNMISTAKABLY NORTHERN ITALIAN, APPEAR TO FOLLOW THE STYLE OF BELBELLO DA PAVIA (fl. 1420-70), especially his choir books for San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, one of which is at the Met Cloisters (object no. 60.165). In very good condition.
¶See Palladino’s Treasures of a Lost Art. Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance 114-7.
Price: $850.00