Manuscript, Missal, Milan, ca. 1400-20.

Foliation: parchment. i-ii (18th-century or 19th-century paper, watermark) + 369 (foliated 1-187, 189-276, 278-317, 317a-370) + iii-v (as ff.i-ii) ff.

Number of lines: 18 lines.

Language: Latin.

Script: rounded Italian Gothic bookhand.

Textual content:
ff.1r-6v: Calendar, with saints specific to Milan.
ff. 7r-7v: Order for the blessing of water and salt.
ff. 8r-15v: Votive Mass for the Trinity.
ff. 16r-291v: Temporale and a series of prefaces (ff. 289v-291v), with a litany (ff. 254v-256v) for the Office on Holy Saturday.
ff. 292r-297v: Canon of the Mass, lacking a folio (for the Vere Dignum).
ff. 298v-323v: Sanctorale, Proper of the Saints.
ff. 323v-349r: Common of the Saints, Masses asking for the protection of saints, for sinners, angels, the Holy Spirit and the Cross.
ff. 349r-360r: Masses to the Virgin Mary for various seasons.
ff. 360r-369r: Masses for the Dead.

Decoration: 16 historiated initials (ff. 8r, 16r, 38r, 47r, 258v, 273r, 280r, 283r, 292r, 300v, 303r, 305v, 314r, 316v, 320v, 360r), with large leafy scrolls spreading into the borders in orange, green and blue, with gold discs. Display script and penwork in brown and red used on the first lines adjacent to most historiated initial. Numerous 2-line initials alternating blue body with red and blue penwork flourishingm and red body with lilac penwork.

Artist: Attributed to Tomasino da Vimercate (the Master of the Modena Hours) and assistants.

Binding: 17th century from Italy. Cream coloured parchment over boards. Spine lettered in ink: Missale. 19th-century repairs (stitching of covers to the broken leather thongs; insertion of fly-leaves).

Bequeathed by George Reid.

(1) On the verso of upper cover pastedown, early 19th-century inscription 'DUC[?]OS - GUSSAGO', either a place or personal name.
(2) Inscription on inside upper cover: "Coll. Daw".
(3) Bequeathed by George Reid to V&A in 1902.

A Missal is a liturgical book containing all the texts, chants and prayers necessary for the celebration of the Mass. This example was written and illuminated in Northern Italy, probably Milan, in the early 15th century. Its calendar includes numerous Milan saints, such as Satyrus, Galdinus, Maternus, as well as Pavian saints, such as Syrus of Pavia. The manuscript is unusually small for a Missal, which may indicate that it was a priest’s personal copy or made for use at a subsidiary altar.
Beautiful historiated initials extend their foliage and flowers into the borders and introduce the main events of the liturgical year. The Nativity (f. 38r), for instance, illustrates the main Christmas Day Mass, while the Feast of Saint John the Baptist begins with a depiction of the saint holding a book on which lies the Agnus Dei (f. 305v).
The stylistic characteristics of these initials argue for an attribution to the Master of the Modena Hours, usually identified as Tomasino da Vimercate. This artist, active in Lombardy from ca. 1390 to the 1420s, worked on several manuscripts made for the Visconti family, rulers of Milan, and their entourage.

MSL/1902/1699 (Reid 66)