Montage of manuscript cuttings from a Sistine Chapel Missal completed for Pope Clement VII (1523-1534), with a miniature of the Decollation of St Paul, illuminated by Vincent Raymond de Lodève and workshop, Rome, ca. 1523 -1534.

This montage is made of 9 original cuttings from a 16th-century papal missal and 4 19th-century added pieces with inscriptions or blanks.
Below description from Eze 2010:
a. Miniature of the Martyrdom of Paul with another Saint already beheaded by his side.
b. (outer top centre) Border of grotesques and the Medici diamond ring device and six balls.
c. (outer right) Border of grotesques, ovals with scrolls inscribed ‘SOLI DEO (H)ONOR ET GLORIA’ and ‘GLOVIS’ and a falcon perched on the Medici diamond ring device and motto ‘SEMPER’.
d. (outer left) Border of grotesques, ovals containing scrolls inscribed ‘GLORIA ET ?DIVITI’ and ‘GLOVIS’ and a falcon perched on the Medici diamond ring device and motto ‘SEMPER’.
e. (inner top) Border of grotesques with two zoomorphic figures supporting the Medici diamond ring device.
f. (inner right) Border of grotesques with ovals containing half-length figures of the evangelists John and Matthew and the Medici yoke device with motto ‘SUAVE’.
g. (inner bottom centre) Border grotesques and the Medici papal arms.
h. (inner left) Border of grotesques with ovals containing half-length figures of the evangelists Luke and Mark and the Medici yoke device with motto ‘SUAVE’.

Early nineteenth-century, probably Paris, 1802-1806.
i. (outer top left) Section of border of zoomorphic grotesques and a blank oval panel.
j. (outer top right) Section of zoomorphic grotesques and a blank oval panel.
k. (outer bottom left) Border of zoomorphic grotesques and a panel inscribed ‘CLEMENS VII PONTIF. OPT. MAX. JULIUS DE MEDICIS FLORENTIUS LEONIS X FRATER PATRUELIS’.
l. (outer bottom right) Section of border of zoomorphic grotesques and a panel inscribed ‘ELECTUS SUM PONT. ANNO DOMINI MDXXIII’.
Gilt wood frame.

Cuttings from a missal completed for Clement VII (r. 1523-1534), but probably begun under Leo X (f. 1513-1521). Corresponds to A.I.9 in the Sistine Sacristy Inventory of 1714 (see Eze 2010 p. 451 and de Laurentiis 2011),
Collection of abbot Luigi Celotti (1759-1843) who had the montage made and framed (probably in Paris, c. 1802-1806): his sale, Christie's, London, 26 May 1825, lot 71; purchased by William Young Ottley; Collection of William Young Otlley: his sale, Sotheby's, London, 11-12 May 1838. Collection of Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890): his sale, 17 April 1893, lot 3282. Collection of George Salting (1835-1909): acquired with the George Salting Bequest in 1910.

Cuttings from the same manuscript in the V&A collection: E.4577-1910 and E.4578-1910.

In the 19th century it became common practice in Italy to dismember illuminated books. This was done to satisfy collectors. This is a montage of cut-out decoration from a choirbook that came from the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It was made for Pope Clement VII (ruled 1523-34). The frame dates from the early 19th century. We know that the illuminator, Vincenzo Raimondi (the Frenchman, Vincent Raymond), was in Rome from the 1520s. He was made papal illuminator in 1549, and died in 1557. In 1549 Paul III called him 'our illuminator [miniatorem] for the Chapel and Sacristy, for life'.

E.4578-1910