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Detailed record for Additional 38897C
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| Title |
Cutting from a Gradual or Antiphoner |
| Origin |
Italy, N. (?Cremona) |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Artists |
Attributed to Ambrogio da Marliano (active in Milan, documented 1461-1462) |
| Decoration |
1 historiated initial 'I' in colours and gold, of Augustine enthroned blessing two groups of kneeling Augustinian canons, introducing the introit to the Mass for the feast of Augustine (28 August): 'In medio Ecclesiae aperuit os eius'. |
| Dimensions in mm |
230 x 175 |
| Official foliation |
Parchment cutting, foliated as 'C'. |
| Form |
Mounted parchment cutting, kept in a box with other cuttings. |
| Binding |
N/A |
| Provenance |
?An Augustinian convent in Cremona: Melograni has suggested that the inscription 'from the Cathedral of Como' on Cambridge (MA), Harvard University, Hougton Library, pf Ms Typ 984, f. 3v and other related cuttings, all of which are stylistically attributable to Cremona, stem from an early twentieth-century anonymous collector's confusion of the two Lombard cities. However, the same wording can be found in the catalogue of the sale of William Young Ottley (see below; lots 74, 141-42, 148-49, and 160-69). Therefore, the Como attribution dates to 1838 at the latest.
William Young Ottley (b. 1771, d. 1836), writer on art and collector: his sale 11 May 1838, part of lot 175; purchased by Rogers for 16s.
Samuel Rogers (b. 1763, d. 1855), poet: his sale, 28 April 1856, part of lot 999; purchased on eighth day (6 May 1856) of the sale by Tiffin for £1 10s.
Walter Benjamin Tiffin (b. 1795, d. 1877), London art dealer and publisher: purchased from him by the Department of Prints and Drawings of the British Museum on 10 May 1856.
Transferred to the Department of Manuscripts in 1914. |
| Notes |
Italian cutting.
The present initial is boxed with Add. 38897A-B as well as with Add. 42061, parts 1-6. To see this initial in the Manuscripts Reading Room order Add. 38897.
Other initials cut from the same choir book are Cambridge (MA), Harvard University, Houghton Library, pf Ms Typ 984, ff. 1-3; formerly Vienna, Czeczowitzka collection; Washington, National Gallery of Art, B-15, 395.
Other cuttings inscribed on their versos 'from the Cathedral of Como' include Add. 39636, ff. 5-8, 11-12, 30-32 (ff. 11, 12 and 32 are from the same ms), Add. 60630, ff. 2-3; Cambridge (MA), Harvard University, Houghton Library, pf MS Typ 981, f. 2 (f. 1 from the same manuscript), pf MS Typ 982, ff. 1-2, pf Ms Typ 983, ff. 1-3, pf Ms Typ 985, f. 1, pf Ms Typ 986, f. 1, pf Ms Typ 990, f. 3 (ff. 1-2 from the same manuscript), pf Ms Typ 993, ff. 1-2; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. 91; Oberlin (Ohio), Allen Memorial Art Musem, 1943.17; Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, Ms. Free Library of Philadelphia. Lewis E M 28:8, Lewis E M 71:1c (71:1a-b from the same manuscript); Princeton, University Art Museum, n. y1972-6; and Private collection, formerly New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection (see Pia Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003), cat. nos. 62a, c-d).
Musical notation: the impression of four four-line red staves visible through the illumination. |
| Select bibliography |
British Museum Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1911-1915 (London: British Museum, 1925; repr. 1969), pp. 331-32.
Mirella Levi D'Ancona, 'Frate Nebridio: Il Maestro del Messale Mainardi', Arte Lombarda, 8 (1963), pp. 87-92 (p. 90, fig. 4).
Medieval & Renaissance Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art, compiled by Carra Ferguson and others under the direction of Carl Nordenfalk (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1975), pp. 75-76.
Anna Melograni, 'Miniature Inedite del Quattrocento Lombardo nelle Collezioni Americane', Storia dell’Arte 82 (1994), 283-302 (pp. 292-94).
Iter Liturgicum Italicum, ed. by Giacomo Baroffio (Padua: CLEUP, 1999), p. 104.
Luisa Tognoli Bardin, 'Ambrogio da Marliano', in Dizionario Biografico dei Miniatori Italiani: Secoli IX-XVI, ed. by Milvia Bollati (Milan: Bonnard, 2004), p. 17. |
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