Leaf for the feast of the Ascension from a Missal, Umbria, ca.1320-1330.

Leaf from a Missal that introduces the Mass for the feast of the Ascension, probably made in Umbria, ca. mid-late 14th century. Double-sided. Text written in black ink with red rubrics (a title, chapter heading, or instruction that is not strictly part of the text but helps to identify it). Colour pigments, gold leaf, and ink.

Two columns of text (Southern Gothic Textualis) are separated by pink and orange acanthus leaves that run half way up the centre of the page. The marginalia (writing or decoration in the margins of a manuscript) runs along the entire left margin, along the top and into the bas-de-page (bottom of the page). The acanthus leaves are painted in pink, organge, blue, and green pigments and accented with burnished gold leaf (gold paint that has been polished to shine).

Recto: Historiated initial 'C' with colour pigments and burnished gold leaf. Red initial 'P' with blue penwork (fine, linear ebellishment).

Verso: Blue initial 'V' with red penwork.

Decoration
Recto: Delicate acanthus leaves, painted in pink, blue, orange, and gree pigments are accented with burnished gold leaf. These decorations also contain foliate forms and extend along the left margin, up into and along the length of the top border; it also extens down into the left half of the bas-de-page (bottom of the page) and up partially into the centre space between the text columns.

Verso: One blue initial 'V' with red penwork (fine, linear embellishment).

Text
Recto:

Verso: Introit (the choral sung at the beginning of the Mass, originally during the entry) for the Mass for the feast of Ascension Sunday
'Viri Galilaei, qui admiramini aspicentes in coelum alleluia'

Christ ascends into Heaven while the apostle witness the event.

Part of a group of 'illuminations' bought from Spithower in Rome on 18 December 1860 (now Museum nos 1487-1537).
Cuttings from the same manuscript in the V&A collection: Museum nos 1489, 1490, 1491, 1492, 1493, 1494, 1495.

This leaf (cutting) is for the feast of the Ascension (fortieth day of Easter, always a Thursday; the departure of Christ from earth into heaven), and is from a mid-late 14th century Missal (a service book containing the texts necessary for the performance of the Mass together with cermonial directions). The historiated initial

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