Beschreibung:

MISSAL, in Latin, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [northern Italy, c.1503] 398 x 275mm. i + 176 leaves with pencil foliation 1-177 including blank endleaf at beginning followed here: 1 2, 2-11 1 0, 12 2, 13-19 1 0, 20 2, vertical catchwords on final folios, apparently COMPLETE, 15 lines written in black ink in a round gothic bookhand between 2 verticals and 16 horizontals, Prefaces with fives lines of music of square notation on a four-line stave of red, rubrics in red with one-line calligraphic initials with lilac flourishing, other one-line calligraphic initials with red penwork flourishing, painted one-line initials and crosses against grounds of gold, 199 pages with two- or three-line illuminated initials with staves predominantly of blue and green foliate forms against gold grounds and with infills of red with flower-sprays of blue or yellow, or harpies, birds or masks, beside each illuminated initial an oval medallion of black with silver sprays, or birds, or grotesques and a text-height border made up of sprays of flowers with golden stems, an illuminated initial and panel border with historiated medallion and perching birds, TWENTY-FIVE HISTORIATED INITIALS IN COLOURS OR GRISAILLE WITH FULL-PAGE ALL'ANTICA BORDERS to introduce the introit for each Mass, FULL-PAGE MINIATURE OF THE NATIVITY (three very small pigment losses in the robe of the Virgin, small splash spots in upper left corner on f.4, slight cropping to border on f.27v, oxidisation of lions on coats of arms). BINDING: Fine early-17th-century Roman imitation of a French bookbinding la fanfare . Gold-tooled red morocco over thin beech boards, the covers richly decorated with fillets, gouges and borders formed of repetitions of small tools, the shaped compartments filled with leafy sprays, lions rampant, fleurons, roundels, dots and other small ornament, the central compartment left empty, flat spine similarly decorated (including a vase tool), double fillet along the board edges, elaborate silver clasps (marked FZ) and catches added later, leaf edges gilt (later paper tabs), early-19th-century French light-blue watered silk liners (short tear in foot of spine, corners slightly bumped, joints and other extremities rubbed). M.M. Foot, Henry Davis Gift I (1978) pl.VII.25.B, illustrates a Roman binding by the Rospigliosi atelier for a member of the Rossi family that shows a similar rampant lion; on the present binding this device (both left and right-facing version) is unlikely to be armorial as it does not appear in the centre compartment. G.D. Hobson, Les reliures la fanfare (1935) knew of six Roman imitations of fanfare bindings (his list 10B, nos 264-269), to which A.R.A. Hobson added two other examples in the second edition of 1970 (nos 264a and 265a). The Cornaro Missal binding is apparently unpublished. PROVENANCE: 1. Throughout the borders small text panels with the inscription IO.EPS.CAR. have been overpainted. It would appear that the decoration of the manuscript was undertaken for a Cardinal Bishop named Giovanni and that signs of his patronage were overpainted for a successor. Similarity with the pigments of the overpainting suggests that this took place when the Cornaro arms were supplied on folios 8 and 111. These are openings for the Feasts of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist but there is no sign of Cardinal Giovanni's arms having been completed and then either erased or overpainted, suggesting that at least the heraldic element of the illumination of the manuscript was incomplete when Cardinal Marco Cornaro acquired it. Cornaro's predecessor as Bishop of Verona was Cardinal Giovanni Michiel (1471-1503). Michiel was a 'clever, learned, good and devout man'. He he was also wealthy; it was in order to gain his material assets -- so it was rumoured -- that his poisoning was carried out at the command of the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI. Michiel lived long enough to make a testament in favour of the Cathedral of Verona: 'In morte quatuordecim