Montage of manuscript cuttings from a Sistine Chapel Missal completed for Pope Clement VII (1523-1534), with miniatures of Saints Cosmas and Damian, 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 Saints Cosmas and Damian within an architectural frame surmounted by a lunette with the Madonna and Child and two Medici yoke devices.
b. (outer top centre) Border of grotesques and the Medici diamond ring device and motto 'SEMPER'.
c. (outer right) Border of grotesques, ovals with two blank plaques and the de’ Medici yoke device.
d. (outer bottom centre) Border of grotesques and the Medici papal arms.
e. (outer left) Border of grotesques, ovals containing scrolls inscribed ‘SOLI DEO IN ORD’ and ‘ET GLORIA’ and the Medici yoke device.
f. (inner top) Border of grotesques with two zoomorphic figures supporting the Medici diamond ring device.
g. (inner right) Border of grotesques with ovals containing half-length figures of two prophets, and the Medici yoke device.
h. (inner bottom centre) Border grotesques and Medici papal arms.
i. (inner left) Border of grotesques with ovals containing half-length figures of prophets, and the Medici yoke device.

Frame (early nineteenth-century, probably Paris, 1802-1806).
a. (outer top left) Section of border of broncone with a blank panel.
b. (outer top right) Section of border of broncone with a blank panel.
c. (outer bottom left) Border of broncone and a panel inscribed ‘CLEMENS VII PONTIF. OPT. MAX. JULIUS DE MEDICIS FLORENTIUS LEONIS X FRATER PATRUELIS’.
d. (outer bottom right) Section of border of broncone 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 68. Collection of Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890): his sale, 17 April 1893, lot 3281. 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.4577-1910