VERY LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIAL on a leaf from an Antiphonary, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum[Italy (Central?), 15th century (first half)]
a single leaf, c. 565 × 400 mm, with six lines of text and music on square notation on four-line red staves, the recto (framed as the reverse) with the antiphon ‘Benedicta tu in mulieribus …’; Thou art blessed among women), the verso with a VERY LARGE FOLIATE INITIAL AND BORDER introducing the antiphon ‘Vidi spetiosam sicut columbam ascendentem …’ (I saw a beauty like a dove ascending), for the feast of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary (15 August), the lower margin with a catchword surrounded by flour flourishes, showing that this was the last leaf of its quire; with some minor flaking of pigments and gold, but still a very impressive and dramatic leaf; in a double-sided giltwood frame.
PROVENANCEThe Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 1316.
ILLUMINATIONAlthough the style is fundamentally Florentine in origin, the style spread widely and this leaf may be from further south, perhaps even Lazio.
No other leaves from the parent manuscript have yet been identified.
VERY LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIAL on a leaf from an Antiphonary, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum[Italy (Central?), 15th century (first half)]
a single leaf, c. 565 × 400 mm, with six lines of text and music on square notation on four-line red staves, the recto (framed as the reverse) with the antiphon ‘Benedicta tu in mulieribus …’; Thou art blessed among women), the verso with a VERY LARGE FOLIATE INITIAL AND BORDER introducing the antiphon ‘Vidi spetiosam sicut columbam ascendentem …’ (I saw a beauty like a dove ascending), for the feast of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary (15 August), the lower margin with a catchword surrounded by flour flourishes, showing that this was the last leaf of its quire; with some minor flaking of pigments and gold, but still a very impressive and dramatic leaf; in a double-sided giltwood frame.
PROVENANCEThe Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 1316.
ILLUMINATIONAlthough the style is fundamentally Florentine in origin, the style spread widely and this leaf may be from further south, perhaps even Lazio.
No other leaves from the parent manuscript have yet been identified.
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