VERY LARGE HISTORIATED INITIAL "H", on a leaf from an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT CHOIR BOOK ON VELLUM [Lombardy, circa 1250] Leaf 430x300mm, initial 135x86mm, of yellow columns with geometric strapwork decoration, on blue and purple ground; infilled in the lower half with the figure of a man in purple shift, bent over supporting a flowering tree with green and purple leaves; in the upper half a similar figure in blue supporting a stylized tree with green and blue foliage, an orange bird on top. Verso of a leaf numbered xxx.i. Text in brown ink in a large gothic rotunda, rubrics in red, 11 lines of music in square notation on red four-line staves, 3 two-line initials. 11 lines of music on recto. The initial introduces the antiphon or response for Mass on the first night of Christmas ' Hodie nobis celorum rex '. A remarkable almost romanesque initial, showing Byzantine influence. A somewhat later, but related version of this illumination has been described by M.M.Manion and V.F.Vines, Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts in Australian Collections (1984) no.3 and plate 3, part of a Cistercian Gradual "its restrained and simple execution, together with its fine script, is consistent with Cistercian products, and the decorated initials provide a good example of late 13th-century north Italian work".
VERY LARGE HISTORIATED INITIAL "H", on a leaf from an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT CHOIR BOOK ON VELLUM [Lombardy, circa 1250] Leaf 430x300mm, initial 135x86mm, of yellow columns with geometric strapwork decoration, on blue and purple ground; infilled in the lower half with the figure of a man in purple shift, bent over supporting a flowering tree with green and purple leaves; in the upper half a similar figure in blue supporting a stylized tree with green and blue foliage, an orange bird on top. Verso of a leaf numbered xxx.i. Text in brown ink in a large gothic rotunda, rubrics in red, 11 lines of music in square notation on red four-line staves, 3 two-line initials. 11 lines of music on recto. The initial introduces the antiphon or response for Mass on the first night of Christmas ' Hodie nobis celorum rex '. A remarkable almost romanesque initial, showing Byzantine influence. A somewhat later, but related version of this illumination has been described by M.M.Manion and V.F.Vines, Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts in Australian Collections (1984) no.3 and plate 3, part of a Cistercian Gradual "its restrained and simple execution, together with its fine script, is consistent with Cistercian products, and the decorated initials provide a good example of late 13th-century north Italian work".
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
