REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE CAMALDOLESE ORDER, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [probably Florence, Sta Maria degli Angeli, c.1400
REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE CAMALDOLESE ORDER, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [probably Florence, Sta Maria degli Angeli, c.1400] 208 x 150mm. 88 leaves, COMPLETE . Opening leaf with HISTORIATED PORTRAIT INITIAL with foliate borders, SEVEN ILLUMINATED initials, one including a bird’s head terminal (slight darkening of outer margins, section of parchment replaced to blank folio before the opening of the second text, erased inscriptions from margins of f.1). 17th-century vellum-covered tawed pigskin over pasteboard (marked and scuffed and lacking ties). CONTENT : Rule of St Benedict ff.1-25v; Constitutions of the Camaldolese Order ff.27-73v; Constitution of Cardinal Octaviano ff.73v-78v; Fifth Constitution of the Camaldolese order ff.78v-86v; Speculum or Admonition of St Bernard ff.87-88v. The manuscript brings together regulations governing life within a Camaldolese monastery. It opens with the rule of St Benedict, the order from which it originated, and follows with constitutions passed at subsequent general chapter meetings. It was presumably made for the use of a member of the Camaldolese order, and was most likely produced in the scriptorium of one of their houses. ILLUMINATION : The author portrait in the initial that opens the manuscript, and the Rule of St Benedict, shows Benedict wearing a white habit rather than the customary black: this is a specific feature of Camaldolese iconography. The Camaldolese house most renowned for manuscript production was Sta Maria degli Angeli in Florence: home of Don Simone and Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (d.1399). Although a much more modest product than the opulent choirbooks with which his name is identified, precise details of the decoration point to the manuscript having been decorated within Don Silvestro’s sphere of influence. The orange initial staves lined with yellow, the palette combining dull pink, orange and bottle green, the biting bird-head terminals and the distinctive foliage cusps decorated with spokes with dotted ends are all features found in the manuscripts he made for his own and other Camaldolese houses. See, for example, the dispersed leaves and cuttings believed to have originated in Graduals made for San Michele a Murano: Gaudenz Freuler in Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence 1300-1450 , eds L.B. Kanter & B. Drake Boehm, ex. cat., Metropolitan Museum of New York, 1994-95, pp.155-165.
REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE CAMALDOLESE ORDER, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [probably Florence, Sta Maria degli Angeli, c.1400
REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE CAMALDOLESE ORDER, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [probably Florence, Sta Maria degli Angeli, c.1400] 208 x 150mm. 88 leaves, COMPLETE . Opening leaf with HISTORIATED PORTRAIT INITIAL with foliate borders, SEVEN ILLUMINATED initials, one including a bird’s head terminal (slight darkening of outer margins, section of parchment replaced to blank folio before the opening of the second text, erased inscriptions from margins of f.1). 17th-century vellum-covered tawed pigskin over pasteboard (marked and scuffed and lacking ties). CONTENT : Rule of St Benedict ff.1-25v; Constitutions of the Camaldolese Order ff.27-73v; Constitution of Cardinal Octaviano ff.73v-78v; Fifth Constitution of the Camaldolese order ff.78v-86v; Speculum or Admonition of St Bernard ff.87-88v. The manuscript brings together regulations governing life within a Camaldolese monastery. It opens with the rule of St Benedict, the order from which it originated, and follows with constitutions passed at subsequent general chapter meetings. It was presumably made for the use of a member of the Camaldolese order, and was most likely produced in the scriptorium of one of their houses. ILLUMINATION : The author portrait in the initial that opens the manuscript, and the Rule of St Benedict, shows Benedict wearing a white habit rather than the customary black: this is a specific feature of Camaldolese iconography. The Camaldolese house most renowned for manuscript production was Sta Maria degli Angeli in Florence: home of Don Simone and Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (d.1399). Although a much more modest product than the opulent choirbooks with which his name is identified, precise details of the decoration point to the manuscript having been decorated within Don Silvestro’s sphere of influence. The orange initial staves lined with yellow, the palette combining dull pink, orange and bottle green, the biting bird-head terminals and the distinctive foliage cusps decorated with spokes with dotted ends are all features found in the manuscripts he made for his own and other Camaldolese houses. See, for example, the dispersed leaves and cuttings believed to have originated in Graduals made for San Michele a Murano: Gaudenz Freuler in Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence 1300-1450 , eds L.B. Kanter & B. Drake Boehm, ex. cat., Metropolitan Museum of New York, 1994-95, pp.155-165.
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