Beschreibung:

Anonymous northeastern Italian artist Breviary, use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [northeastern Italy, c.1480s] With borders full of dense foliage, Renaissance motifs, and dozens of miniatures; complete and in an early binding. c.125 x 85mm, i + 406 leaves, complete, collation: 16, 2-4110, old ink foliation 1–398 followed here (ignores the calendar and repeats 35 and 367), two columns of 29 lines, ruled space: c.70 x 52 mm, 5 historiated initials, 24 full historiated borders, 49 three-sided illuminated borders, and small illuminated initials throughout, three- to seven-line initials extending into the upper and lower margins. Late 16th-century brown gilt leather. Textile-covered slipcase. Content: Calendar, with major feasts in red, otherwise ungraded (not foliated); Ferial psalter f.1; Litany f.71, followed by petitions and collects, the fifth with the very unusual ‘famulo tuo pastori nostro N’; Hymns f.72v; Rubrics f.81v; near-contemporary but added (lacking decoration) Hours of the Cross and of the Spirit ff.88-89; f.89v originally blank; Temporale, from the first Sunday in Advent to the week before Advent, f.90; Sanctorale, from St Saturninus to St Catherine of Alexandria (29 Nov. – 25 Nov.), f.254v, including the Dedication of a church or altar (between the IIII Coronati, 8 Nov. and Theodore, 9 Nov.) f.364; Common of saints, ending f.372; Office of the Dead f.392; Office of St Catherine of Siena (30 April) ff.395–398; added 16th-century medicinal recipes f.398v. Illumination: The main illumination consists of gold-edged borders densely filled with acanthus in rich colours, usually against a black background with gold tendril ornament, with miniatures or vignettes in gold-edged roundels or rectangular panels. These borders often contain Renaissance motifs such as putti, garlands, and candelabra, and there are a ‘historiated’ elements such as men spearing dragons. There appear to be at least two artists involved; the border on f.207, for example, is quite different from most of the others: the foliage is much less fleshy and abundant, and it is set against a gold ground with different tendril ornament, while the ground of the border on f.299v is not only gold, but burnished to a high polish. Miniatures are often set within simple landscapes, with green and yellow grass in the foreground, and a sky that blends rapidly from pale to dark blue; there is great variety, however: one is in semi-grisaille, for example. Partly due to their small scale, full-length figures often have a rather squat puppet-like appearance; some roundels contain the head and shoulders of more elegant figures in profile, reminiscent of medals by Pisanello and their derivatives in other media. The iconography is sometimes very unusual: an image of Kind David in water is standard for Psalm 68 (‘Salvum me fac deus, quoniam intraverunt aquae [...]’), but the details of his anatomy here are highly unusual, and there is no obvious explanation for a similar image at Psalm 38, where the background appears to be a snow-covered landscape. The subjects of the historiated initials are as follows: David in prayer f.1; St Paul f.90; God blessing f.207; the Annunciation f.280; John the Baptist f.299v. The subjects of the borders are: f.1: Samson and the Lion; Moses turning his staff into a serpent before Herod; David and Goliath; a young man’s head. f.18v: a young woman’s head; an angel; a strange conflation of King David and Christ: rays of light from heaven shining on a king, without halo but with stigmata, kneeling next to a wall. f.20: King David waist-deep in water. f.31v: a half-length child; a bearded man; The Fool. f.36v: King David standing in shallow water. f.45: the four Evangelists. f.51v: putti and three clerics with red hats singing. f.60: the Last Judgement. f.90: Christ blessing; the Evangelists; David playing the psaltery; the Virgin Enthroned; a praying boy. f.107v: the Nativity; the Annunciation to the Shepherds; a monk(?) in