Beschreibung:

LEAF FROM THE LLANGATTOCK BREVIARY, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Ferrara, c.1450] 270 x 198mm. Two columns of 30 lines written in brown ink in a gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, two-line initial of burnished gold on a blue ground with white filigree decoration, one-line initials alternately of gold and blue with flourishing of blue and red, FOUR FULL-LENGTH BAR BORDERS of burnished gold with terminal or marginal sprays of scrolling penwork tendrils supporting foliage, flowers and golden disks (slight fading). Double-sided standing frame. This leaf comes from a manuscript that was sold in our rooms (8 December 1958, lot 190) as part of the estate of the 2nd Baron Llangattock. Many miniatures had already been removed and after the sale the remaining leaves were separated and dispersed. All aspects of the manuscript - size, format and illumination - correspond to those of the Missal of Borso d'Este, Marquis and then Duke of Ferrara (Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Ms W.5.2, Lat.239) and the Breviary was certainly made either for him or his predecessor Leonello and intended, like the Missal, for use in the ruler's chapel. It is now usually identified with the Breviary recorded in accounts in the d'Este archives as having been illuminated for Leonello by Giorgio d'Alemagna, Bartolomeo di Beninc, Guglielmo Giraldi and Matteo de' Pasti F. Toniolo ed., La miniatura a Ferrara dal tempo di Cosm Tura all'eredit di Ercole de' Roberti (1998), pp.19, 20, 76-77.