Large decorated initial 'S' on a leaf from an illuminated Gradual, manuscript on vellum [Italy (Siena, perhaps the convent of San Francesco), c.1270-80]

single leaf, 532mm. by 370mm., with a large initial 'S' (95mm. high; opening "Sancti tui domine benedicent te ...", the introit for the feast of SS. Fabian and Sebastian, 20 July) formed of soft pink, green and red acanthus-leaf sprays heightened with scalloped white penwork, on deep blue grounds with splashes of burnished gold with tiny detailed pouncing, enclosing intertwining symmetrical scrolls of coloured vine-work foliage terminating in bulbous leaves, 6 lines of text in black ink with music on a 4-line red stave, rubrics in red, paragraph marks in blue, "CXXIX" in red and blue in margin, one small initial in red with excellent blue penwork and infill picking out foliage sprays within the initial, slight discolouration to lower part of leaf, stain from medieval reference tag once attached to leaf, tiny flaking from some areas of gold, else excellent condition, mounted on card

This notably early leaf with its eye-catching and impressive initial is from the same Gradual as a leaf with a historiated initial of the Stigmatisation of St. Francis (J.Paul Getty Museum, MS.71), attributed to the panel painter and illuminator Rinaldo da Siena, documented in 1274 and 1278; cf. G. Valagussa in Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani, ed. M. Bollati, 2004, pp.910-11; and T. Kren and K. Barstow, Italian Illuminated Manuscripts, 2005, p.9.