Leaf from a Choral Book: Annunciation to Zaccharias
Date: c. 1265
Medium: ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
Dimensions: Sheet - h:49.70 w:29.90 cm (h:19 9/16 w:11 3/4 inches)
Leaf from a Choral Book: Annunciation to Zaccharias
Date: c. 1265
Medium: ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
Dimensions: Sheet - h:49.70 w:29.90 cm (h:19 9/16 w:11 3/4 inches)
Bifolium from an Antiphonary: Initial M with Saint Dominic Preaching
Date: c. 1320-1340
Medium: ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
Dimensions: Sheet - h:51.00 w:37.70 cm (h:20 1/16 w:14 13/16 inches)
Leaf from a Gradual: Initial P with the Nativity
Date: c. 1500
Medium: ink, tempera and gold on vellum
Dimensions: Each leaf - h:59.80 w:4.10 cm (h:23 1/2 w:1 9/16 inches)
Department: Medieval Art
Type of art work: Manuscript
Credit Line: The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection
Accession No.: 2003.173
Location: Not on view
Puer natus e[st] nobis, et filius datus est nobis… (For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us…) Opening of the Introit (beginning) for Christmas Day Taken from Isaiah 9:6, the text continues, “and his name shall be called Wonderful.” It is used to celebrate the birth of Christ-one of the most joyous events of the Christian Church-at solemn High Mass on Christmas Day. This splendid leaf from a manuscript gradual contains the chants used for that Mass. It features a prominent initial P with sprays of foliage that emerge and migrate along three sides of the page. The initial belongs to one of the most prominent Florentine illuminators of the late 15th century, Attavante degli Attavanti, whose patrons included Duke Federigo da Montefeltro of Urbino, King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, and the Medici pope Leo X. Attavante had a large workshop in Florence and often collaborated with other illuminators on important projects.