St. Peter and St. Paul, large historiated initial on a leaf from an illuminated manuscript gradual, in Latin, on vellum

a single leaf, 530mm by 387mm, with large historiated initial 'N' (opening 'Nunc scio vere quia misit Dominus angelum suum ...' the Introit of the Mass for the feast of St. Peter, 29 June), in blue with delicate white penwork designs, terminating in acanthus-leaves, enclosing SS. Peter holding his keys and Paul with his sword, with God above bearing witness and holding a scroll, all on burnished gold ground with small painted blue flowers and complex pouncing and scoring patterns, extending into vertical border with coloured leafy extensions and gold bezants, and ants carrying seeds in the bas-de-page (rubbed and partially erased), seven 4-line red staves with text in a late Gothic hand, two large initials in red and blue with penwork to contrast and folio number 'XXVIIII' on verso, a little trimmed with some rubbing to gold, else in good condition, in gilt frame

From the same manuscript as the previous lot. Here the artist's debt to panel painting in his treatment of pounced and scored gold is even more clear, and his addition of the ants in the bas-de-page may reflect his knowledge of the moralised bestiary traditions regarding these creatures: that they harvest grain, carrying it away in their mouths, and that an ant without a grain will never try to steal one from another ant who has one. Medieval bestiaries drew from this the lesson that monks should emulate the ants in working together for the common good, and the artist may have wanted to highlight this lesson to the monastic audience of the volume.