Beschreibung:

Christ entering Jerusalem to cheering crowds, large historiated initial on a leaf from a noted Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Low Countries or adjacent France, second half of thirteenth century (probably c. 1260)] Single leaf, with a large initial (100 by 55mm.) in blue with white brushwork picking out geometric patterns and circles, with Christ on a donkey approaching from the left, as crowds waving palm fronds greet him on the right, all on burnished gold grounds, the initial on burgundy-brown grounds with white penwork, with coloured foliage on chunky coloured grounds extending into margins, large initials in red or blue encased within scrolling penwork in contrasting colours, small initials in red or blue, red rubrics (some with capitals with jagged edges), main text in single column of 26 lines of a large and professional early gothic bookhand, written below top line, music in smaller version of same with Messine (Metz) neumes arranged around stave lines, contemporary folio no. 'cxl', slight chipping to paint in places, some stains to edges, else good condition, 320 by 225mm. The figures here, with their red spotted cheeks and undulating beards, are notably close to those from a copy of Gratian, Decretum , produced in Hainault, c . 1280-90 (now Walters Art Gallery, W.133: reproduced in L.M.C. Randall, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery , 1997, no. 218).