The Calling of Saint Peter, and Christ giving Saint Peter the Keys of Heaven, illuminated miniature from a manuscript choirbook on vellum

a cutting, 253 mm. by 206 mm., with a very large initial 'S' ("Symon ..."), 172 mm. by 135 mm., enclosing in the upper compartment Christ on the right holding out his right hand to call to two men in a black ship on a green sea, Saint Andrew steering the boat and Saint Peter standing up and clasping his hands together in prayer, a fishing net in the sea, dark blue sky decorated with clusters of white dots, in the lower compartment Christ enthroned within an architectural arcade, passing a great key to Saint Peter who kneels in the right, and Saint Peter again standing on the left holding his key and blessing the world, green marble background, all in a very elaborate coloured leafy initial on a coloured panelled ground, border decoration on the left and below (for this was the lower left corner of a leaf), scrolling leafy designs including a very long-legged bird standing on the head of a merman blowing a trumpet, the foliage including a naked man holding up the initial and two fighting soldiers, lower edge of initial rubbed, text mostly erased, laid down on old paper, in an Italian giltwood tabernacle frame, seventeenth century, worked with a rocaille motif on a stippled ground, the upper section with pendant tassels, the lower section with a bracket

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
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Illuminated by the Master of Bagnacavallo, very probably for a new set of choirbooks for Imola Cathedral, near Bologna, completed in 1271 and consecrated in 1278.  The manuscripts were apparently commissioned by Sinibaldo Melotti da Certaldo, bishop of Imola 1270-97.  One volume is still in the cathedral there (Graduale III).  Two cuttings evidently from the same set are now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (26.159.1-2); cf. F. Franco, ed., Cor unum et anima una, Corali miniati della Chiesa di Imola, 1994, pp. 17-18 and 179-80; and B. D. Boehm. Choirs of Angels, Painting in Italian Choir Books, 1300-1500, 2008, pp. 56-7.  The painting belongs to the 'primo stile' of Bolognese book illumination, around 1270 (cf. A. Conti, La miniature Bolognese, Scuole e botteghe, 1270-1340, 1981, figs. 22-3, and for the flamboyant border, cf. figs. 10, 13 and 25).  The naked man in the lower border, with his foot lifted onto a branch and the weight of the entire initial above on his shoulders, echoes classical models of Atlas holding the sky.