Beschreibung:

THE COLONNA MISSAL, use of the Sistine Chapel, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
THE COLONNA MISSAL, use of the Sistine Chapel, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Italy, Rome or Vatican City, c.1532, 1539, and c.1555 370 x 260mm. 97 leaves: 1 8 , 2 9 (of 10, lacking vii), 3 8 , 4 1 2 (of 10, plus a bifolium ix and x), 5-9 1 0 , 10 9 (of 10, lacking x), ff. 34v, 42, 69v, 97 blank, foliated in sixteenth-century ink roman numerals, and in pencil by Eric Millar c.1925, the ink foliation lacks 'i', 'xvi', and stops at 'lxxxxiiii', the list of contents on f.97v was probably originally at the beginning of the volume where it would have been conjoint with and facing f.i, catchwords throughout, ruled in very pale brown ink with 15 pairs of horizontals for the tops and bottoms of minims on each line, with two verticals, justification: 255 x 160mm, written in brown ink in a fine formal gothic script, rubrics in red, with up to 15 lines of text or 5 lines of text and music per page, the music in square notation on three red staves, a fourth stave occasionally ruled at the beginning of a piece of music, one-line gold initials on square grounds alternately blue or red, THIRTY-THREE THREE-LINE ILLUMINATED INITIALS, OFTEN HISTORIATED, in colours on a gold ground or vice versa, WITH LARGE BORDER ORNAMENTS, OFTEN FIGURAL, at the beginning of prayers, readings, etc., ONE VERY LARGE HISTORIATED INITIAL at the beginning of the Canon of the Mass and ONE LARGE MINIATURE at the beginning of the Mass of the Presentation in the Temple (some minor offsetting or smudges, rarely affecting the decoration). Bound in full red morocco extensively gilt and blind-tooled, each cover including the Colonna arms in the centre and a Colonna column to each side, and a doubled-headed eagle in each corner, the spine with Renaissance interlace ornament, the leaves with gilt edges, traces of four ties (spine repaired with old leather laid on, some scuffing, traces of four ties). Red morocco-backed solander box. MADE FOR USE AT SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MASSES OF THE YEAR IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL BINDING: The contemporary binding is by Maestro Luigi de Gava or de Gradi (on whom see A. Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: An Enquiry into the Formation and Dispersal of a Renaissance Library , 1975, pp.70-6, citing the present volume at pp.71 and 73, and reproducing it as pl. VII), this being one of his two earliest datable works. Maestro Luigi is documented from 1542 to 1565 as the binder of the Pope's books written and illuminated for the Sistine Chapel and the capella segreta , his private chapel. PROVENANCE: 1. Cardinal Pompeo di Girolamo Colonna (1479-1532): this volume forms part of a set he commissioned, but whose decoration was not finished until about twenty years after his death (see below). The Colonna arms occur in the earliest phase of decoration on f.1v, and among the other volumes which form the rest of the set (John Rylands Library, Manchester University, Latin mss 32-37) the Colonna arms occur several times, and one contains the inscription 'DIVO POMPEIO CARDINALI COLUMNAE' (see A Descriptive Catalogue of the Latin Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, Part I, MSS 1-183, Comprising a reprint of M. R. James's 1921 Catalogue with Introduction and Additional Notes by Frank Taylor , 1980, pp.87-95 and pls 70-85, citing the present volume in James's Addenda at p.xxvi and discussing it in Taylor's Additional Notes at pp.18*-20*). 2. By descent to other members of the Colonna family: the initial on f.17 contains the Colonna arms ( gules , a column argent , its base and capital or , surmounted by a crown of the same) surmounted by a green bishop's hat, with green cords and six tassels to each side, and next to it the date 21 May 1539; two volumes were added to the set in 1555, one of them with a colophon by the Venetian scribe Johannes Rochus; it is likely that the original volumes were completed and bound at about this date. The present manuscript is inscribed 'N. 2' in 18th(?)-century ink (upper pastedown), while the companion volumes in Manchester a