Beschreibung:

Choirbook leaf with a delicately painted initial, in Latin, manuscript on parchment [Italy (perhaps Veneto), mid-thirteenth century] Single large leaf, with an initial D (opening Dum per ambularet dominus iuxta …, the verse for the first night of the Feast of St. Andrew), in soft pale brown strokes with white penwork picking out bands at its midpoint and curls of acanthus leaves at terminals, enclosing mirrored sprays of green and red foliage on dark blue grounds, all within a pale brown and red penwork frame, remaining letters of the word which the initial begins in red ornamental capitals, one initial in blue with red penwork, capitals in long and complex red penstrokes making these letters unusually tall and thin, smaller capitals touched in red, 10 lines of text in a good early gothic hand with pronounced fishtailing to ascenders and strangely an st-ligature, with music in square notation arranged on a primitive stave above a red clef line, one missing section of text supplied in margin (this partly cut away by trimming), small spots and stains, else excellent condition, 390 by 280mm.; framed in glass on both sides From an extremely early choirbook. The main initial is executed brilliantly, and the complex tall red capitals here delight the eye and find parallels in a leaf catalogued by G. Freuler for the Koller auction in Zurich of 18 September 2015, lot 150. The music here is arranged in a notably antiquated form, but one that can be found in some Italian choirbooks as late as the early fourteenth century (cf. P. Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, no. 19).