A bearded saint on a cutting from an illuminated Missal and a fragment of a Breviary, manuscripts on vellum [Italy, fifteenth and early sixteenth century]

a cutting from an upper border, 45mm. by 94mm., showing the bust of a bearded saint raising a hand in blessing, in a roundel surrounded by pink, green and blue foliage, with two jewel-like flowers with gemstones at their centres, on burnished gold ground, slight rubbing and creasing, remains of the top of a red initial with blue penwork on verso, in card mount, Rome, early sixteenth century; with the Common of the Saints from a portable breviary, 135mm. by 95mm., 38 leaves, double column, 30 lines in black ink, rubrics in red, small initials in red or blue with penwork to contrast, seven larger initials in same (5- to 8-line; first somewhat scuffed), fol.37r with records of letters dated 1465 and 1499 from a cleric of Mantua (the first concerning a Gabrielo Musono and the second addressing "la signoria de Venecia"), some stains and discolouration, remains of contemporary binding (front board missing, last scuffed and loose) of vellum reclaimed from legal document of c.1400 over pasteboards

The cutting is evidently from the Missal made for Cardinal Antoniotto Pallavicini (1442-1507), once in the Sistine Chapel, and looted and dismembered by Napoleonic troops in 1798. See Alexander, 'Illumination for Cardinal Antoniotto Pallavicini' in Studies in Italian Manuscript Illumination, 2002, and lot 20 above.