Beschreibung:

ADORATION OF THE MAGI, in an initial D on a leaf from an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT MISSAL ON VELLUM
ADORATION OF THE MAGI, in an initial D on a leaf from an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT MISSAL ON VELLUM [Tuscany, ?Siena, late 14th century] 361 x 251mm. An elderly king kisses the foot of the Christchild who sits on the Virgin's knee, the other two magi stand at the left, the initial of green, orange and blue foliage frames the figures against the punched burnished gold background and extends into the central, upper and lower margins in foliage of green, pink and blue around a bar of fake gold and terminates in flowers and feathery bird-heads, it includes golden disks, three faces and, in the lower margin, a bird and a butterfly. 26 lines written in black ink in a gothic bookhand between four verticals and 27 horizontals ruled in gray, justification: 235 x 75-20-75mm, rubrics in red, two-line intials of red or blue with flourishing of the other colour (minimal loss of pigment from two bird-heads and slight abrasion of gold from a few disks). This initial opened the prayer Deus qui hodierna die after the introit for the Mass on the feast of the Epiphany, and was folio xviii verso in a Missal. The gorgeous bright colours and sparkling punched gold of this initial and border suggest that this fine leaf is the work of a Sienese illuminator. The moth in the margin was a motif that was taken up later by the Sienese illuminator Sano di Pietro (1406-1481). with a page with the feasts of Sts John the Evangelist and Stephen, folio xiii from the same manuscript. (2)