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Historiated initial from a Gradual for the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele a Murano

Manuscript Cutting
1392 -1399 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This fragment comes from a Gradual made for San Michele a Murano, a Camaldolese monastery in Venice. Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, who may have painted this initial, was a monk of the Camaldolese Order. He was based in the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. The monastery was the home of a number of scribes, painters and illuminators in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They worked both for their own house and for other churches and even secular customers. Silvestro dei Gherarducci (1339-1399) was active as a painter and illuminator in the abbey from the 1370s. Silvestro may have worked as part of a team, with some of the ornament done by others. Whether or not he painted all the miniatures in the San Michele a Murano Graduals has been questioned. Silvestro's assistant, the Master of the Canzoni, may have illuminated this initial V.

It is not known when these choirbooks were cut up. This initial was transferred from the Art Museum to the V&A in December 1863. Their acquisition by the Museum before 1863 is the earliest known indication that they had entered the trade. Others from the same manuscript were purchased by the Museum in 1906.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleHistoriated initial from a Gradual for the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele a Murano
Materials and techniques
Water-based pigment, gold leaf and ink on parchment
Brief description
Historiated initial U (V) with a prophet, from a Gradual for the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele a Murano, Italy (Florence), 1392-1399.
Physical description
Historiated initial V showing a young bearded Prophet holding a scroll. The initial is in blue, vermillion, green and brown-pink with foliations on a ground of burnished gold. This initial introduces the fourth Sunday after Easter.

Rubric: Com'. [Cum vene]rit Para[clitus], from Communion hymn for 4th Sunday; on verso V[ocem iocunditatis], Introit, 5th Sunday after Easter.
Part of 2 lines of music (staves of 4 red lines, 37 mm) and text visible; square notation.
Dimensions
  • Size of cutting height: 230mm
  • Size of cutting width: 230mm
  • Size of miniature height: 150mm
  • Size of miniature width: 140mm
  • Stave height: 37mm
Production typeUnique
Object history
Made in Florence at the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli, for San Michele a Murano in Venice. Bought before 1863 when it was transferred from the Art Museum.
A duplicate number MS.970 was assigned to this object in error and was subsequently cancelled.

Seven fragments, whose date and place of acquisition are unknown, arrived at the South Kensington Museum by an early date; four (2868, 3045, 3074 and 3087) appear in a register recording the internal transfer from the Art Museum to the Library on 6 December 1863 of a group of 241 illuminations, and a further three are recorded in a similar transfer in 1874 (431, 432 and 434). The remaining thirteen cuttings (D.217 to 228-1906) were acquired on 22 June 1906 from Bernard Quaritch for a total cost of £60. Two of them depicting prophets were lost during the Second World War (D.220-1906 and D.223-1906).

Cuttings from the same set of graduals in the V&A collection: 431, 432, 434, 2868, 3045, 3074, 3087, D.217-1906, D.218-1906, D.219-1906, D.221-1906, D.222-1906, D.224-1906, D.225-1906, D.226-1906, D.227-1906,D.228-1906, D.229-1906.

This piece is part of a series of over fifty identified cuttings from two different graduals now distributed through various collections. Related cuttings are in: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library; Stockholm, National Museum; Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett; Paris, Musée Marmottan; Padua, Museo Civico; London, The British Library.
Production
Made at the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence.
Subject depicted
Summary
This fragment comes from a Gradual made for San Michele a Murano, a Camaldolese monastery in Venice. Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, who may have painted this initial, was a monk of the Camaldolese Order. He was based in the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. The monastery was the home of a number of scribes, painters and illuminators in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They worked both for their own house and for other churches and even secular customers. Silvestro dei Gherarducci (1339-1399) was active as a painter and illuminator in the abbey from the 1370s. Silvestro may have worked as part of a team, with some of the ornament done by others. Whether or not he painted all the miniatures in the San Michele a Murano Graduals has been questioned. Silvestro's assistant, the Master of the Canzoni, may have illuminated this initial V.

It is not known when these choirbooks were cut up. This initial was transferred from the Art Museum to the V&A in December 1863. Their acquisition by the Museum before 1863 is the earliest known indication that they had entered the trade. Others from the same manuscript were purchased by the Museum in 1906.
Bibliographic references
  • Catalogue of illuminated manuscripts : Part II, Miniatures, leaves, and cuttings, by S.C. Cockerell and E.F. Strange (London: HMSO, 1908, 1st edition). p. 85.
  • Catalogue of Miniatures, Leaves, and Cuttings from Illuminated Manuscripts. Victoria and Albert Museum. Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, by S.C. Cockerell and C. Harcourt Smith (London: HMSO, 1923, 2nd edition). pp. 77-78 (as Siena, 15th century).
  • George R. Bent, 'The Scriptorium at S. Maria degli Angeli and Fourteenth Century Manuscript Illumination: Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Don Lorenzo Monaco, and Giovanni del Biondo', in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 55. Bd., H. 4 (1992), pp. 507-523.
  • Mirella Levi d'Ancona, The reconstructed "Diurno Domenicale" from Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence: Centro Di, 1993. pp. 29, 49, 55.
  • Kanter, L., B.D. Boehm et al. Painting and illumination in early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450. New York, 1994. pp. 155-176.
  • Watson, Rowan. Vandals and Enthusiasts: Views of Illumination in the Nineteenth Century, London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1995 no. 6.
  • Gaudenz Freuler, Tendencies of Gothic in Florence: Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (Florence: Giunti, 1997). pp. 453-521 (esp. pp. 475-486).
  • Watson, R. Illuminated manuscripts and their makers. An account based on the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. London, 2003. p. 92.
Other number
970 - Cancelled number
Collection
Accession number
3087

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Record createdMarch 31, 2006
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