Cut-out historiated initial C (laurel-leaf and foliate letter shape on a burnished gold ground, two mitred saints holding croziers and books, one of them St Ambrose [?], the hem of one with lettering BARTOLOMEUS OPUS DE GALARATE, within an architectural apse in a receding landscape, attributed to Bartolomeo Rigossi; Italian (Milan?); 3rd quarter of the 15th century A duplicate number MS.984 was assigned to this object in error and was subsequently cancelled.

Purchased from Charles Fairfax Murray in 1894 as part of a group of cuttings (now Museum nos 799-1894 to 817-1894) for the total sum of £190 10s 10d.

Data taken from notes compiled by Rowan Watson. The full text of the entry is as follows:

'799-1894 (MS 984)
CHOIR BOOK
Cut-out historiated initial C (laurel-leaf and foliate letter-shape on a burnished gold ground, two mitred saints holding croziers and books, one of them St Ambrose[?], the hem of one with lettering BARTOLOMEUS OPUS DE GALARATE, within an architectural apse in a receding landscape, attributed to Bartolomeo Rigossi)

Text:.../Alleluia alle/...

Italy (Milan ?). 15th century, 3rd quarter
150 x 145 mm.

On verso part of a line of music (stave of 4 red lines, 40 mm)
visible; square notation

Pub; 1908 cay, 85; 1923 cat, 78-79; Levi d'Ancone, Wildenstein Coll., 1970, p. 81 plate XXII, fig. 12 `Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgechichte', XLVI/XLVII, 1 (1993-4), pp. 334, 460 plate 3.'

There was increasing specialisation towards the end of the Middle Ages, and as part of this process miniature painting became a separate activity within the book trade. A number of the miniature painters who illuminated choirbooks and liturgical manuscripts in Italy can be identified by name. This miniature is signed 'BARTOLOMEUS OPUS DE GALARATE' in the hem of one of the saints' cloaks, and is the work of Barolomeo de' Rigossi da Gallarate, a name that links him with the area around Milan.

799-1894