Miniatures

This antiphonal leaf contains a miniature depicting the dramatic encounter between the Three Maries and an angle standing on the empty Tomb announcing the Risen Christ. The initial “V” forms the incipit for Vespere autem sabbati... for Easter Saturday. The leaf contains ten lines of text in a gothic liturgical hand and ten staves ruled in five-lines with nagel-schrift neums. Rubrics are penned in red, capitals touched in red, and eight initials are drawn in red or blue (one including a face peering out of a hood on the verso). The historiated initial is painted blue with leafy tracery in white; the miniature is set against a burnished and tooled gold ground within a frame of green and red heightened with yellow, all supporting a broad border of twisting coloured flowers and acanthus leaves (one leaf including a face) and gold bezants and a peacock.

Provenance:

Ownership stamp of R. Forrer (of Strassburg), from the Rosenbaum Collection.