Beschreibung:

GRADUAL OF S. GIUSTO ALLE MURA, FLORENCE, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Florence, c.1390] 400 x 280mm. 94 leaves: 1-8 8 , 9 6 , 10-12 8 , COMPLETE, catchwords on most final versos and original foliation in red roman numerals in outer margins of rectos, six lines written in black ink in a gothic bookhand between six lines of music of square notation on a four-line stave of red, justification: 280 x 195mm, rubrics in red, capitals touched yellow, hundreds of large versal initials of blue or red with elaborate pen-work decoration of the other color, FORTY-FOUR LARGE PUZZLE INITIALS, with staves of red and blue with striking diaper- or chequer-patterned infills and surrounds of the same colors, THREE HISTORIATED INITIALS (some wear to burnished gold, tiny pigment losses affecting the foliate terminals of the initials on ff.1 and 8v and the background and Saint's robe on f.17, wear to lower, outer corners of some folios, eight of them repaired with parchment strips, three worm-holds in outer margin of first folios). Late 15th-century panelled goatskin over wooden boards, ruled and stamped in blind with a tool with interlocked diamond rings and feathers, brass cornerpieces and central bosses (rebacked, lacking clasps and pins, slight worming). AN UNRECORDED, INTACT CHOIRBOOK ILLUMINATED BY THE MASTER OF THE CODEX ROSSIANO PROVENANCE: 1. Convent of S. Giusto alle Mura, outside the Porta a Pinti, Florence: rubric on f.1 includes 'monasterii sancti Justi de extra muros civitatis florentiae'. This house of Augustinian nuns was recorded in 1287 and suppressed in 1434, when the buildings were passed to the Frati Gesuati by decree of Eugenius IV. In 1529 it was totally demolished. Vasari, in his life of Perugino, lamented the destruction of the buildings and their many works of art. One of those he singled out for mention was a half-length figure of Saint Justus with angels, over the door of the church, by the hand of 'Gherardo miniatore'. 2. The blind-stamped border on the binding is made from the repeated use of a tool with two interlocked rings and two feathers. This was a device used by both the de Medici and Rucellai families of Florence, and it may be that the manuscript was bound for, or at the expense of one of them. 3. Signore Peone?: inscription in a 17th-century hand on the final verso addressed to him. 4. Purchased Maggs Bros, London, 19 August 1943 -- donated to SMS November 1943. CONTENT: Gradual with the sung elements for Mass on the major feasts of the church year arranged chronologically, followed by the Common of Saints and feasts specific to the community: Nativity (f.1), John the Evangelist (f.3v), Epiphany (f.6), Resurrection (f.8v), Ascension (f.11v), Pentecost (f.14), Justus and Clementis (f.17), Trinity Sunday (f.20), Corpus Cristi (f.22v), Birth of John the Baptist (f.26), Feast of Peter and Paul (f.28v), Assumption of the Virgin (f.30), Nativity of the Virgin (f.32v), Feast of the Holy Cross (f.35v), St. Michael Archangel (f.38), All Saints (f.41v), Birth of Apostle (f.42v), Birth of a Bishop Martyr (f.45v), Birth of a Saint, between Easter and Pentecost (f.47v), Birth of several Martyrs (f.49v), Birth of several Martyrs, between Easter and Pentecost (f.53), Birth of a Bishop Confessor (f.55), Birth of a non-Bishop Confessor (f.58), Birth of a Virgin Saint (f.60v), Dedication of the Church (f.62v), Mass of the Dead (f.65), Feast of Justus and Clement (f.87), Feast of St. Martha (f.91). ILLUMINATION: The distinctive painterly style of rendering faces within these flamboyant and opulent initials allows them to be attributed to the Tuscan illuminator known as the Master of the Codex Rossiano. He is named after a group of leaves in an album in the Vatican Library (Bibl. Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Rossiano 1192). These, and a further leaf by the same artist (NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lehman Collection), came from a choirbook made for S. Miniato al Monte, Florence, on which the Master coll