Manuscript Cutting thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
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Manuscript Cutting

ca. 1480 (illuminated)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

In the 19th century the South Kensington Museum gathered examples of illumination for students to copy. This was a new kind of collection. It was unlike the encyclopedic historic collections of the British Museum or the Bodleian Library in Oxford. From the beginning, the Museum tended to buy ready-made collections. This example is from a portfolio of cuttings from an Italian choirbook. The Museum bought it from J. & W. Boone in 1866 for £15.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Water-based pigments, gilding and ink on parchment
Brief description
Cut-out foliate ornament. Italy. Late 15th century, attributed to Domenico Morone. A duplicate number MS.1173 was assigned to this object in error and was subsequently cancelled.
Physical description
Specimen of a manuscript
Dimensions
  • Height: 200mm
  • Width: 50mm
Historical context
Data taken from notes compiled by Rowan Watson. The full text of the entry is as follows:

'335.8
4918.7 (MS 1173)
CHOIR BOOK?
Cut-out foliate ornament

Italy. Late 15th century
200 x 50 mm

From an album containing 4916-4928 bought for £15 from J & W Boone, 1866'
Subject depicted
Summary
In the 19th century the South Kensington Museum gathered examples of illumination for students to copy. This was a new kind of collection. It was unlike the encyclopedic historic collections of the British Museum or the Bodleian Library in Oxford. From the beginning, the Museum tended to buy ready-made collections. This example is from a portfolio of cuttings from an Italian choirbook. The Museum bought it from J. & W. Boone in 1866 for £15.
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Watson, Rowan. Educators, Collectors, Fragments and the "Illuminated" Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Nineteenth Century. In: Linda L. Brownrigg and Margaret M. Smith, eds. Interpreting and Collecting Fragments of Medieval Books. Los Altos Hills: Anderson Lovelace; London: Red Gull Press, 2000. pp. 21-46, ill. ISBN 0962637262 (hbk); 0962637270 (pbk). p. 26, fig. 2
Collection
Accession number
4918:7

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Record createdFebruary 25, 2004
Record URL
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