A Benedictine Monk, historiated initial on a leaf from a Choir Psalter, in Latin [Italy (Piacenza), c.1485]

single leaf, 596x425mm, vellum, with an initial 'D', 90x90mm, illuminated by MATTEO DA MILANO for Psalm 87 for Lauds, 15 lines, 418x278mm, recto with a large illuminated initial, 60x60mm, flourished initials and an inked initial including a human head, medieval folio numbers 'CLI' and '151', lead white of initial partly oxidised, vellum slightly cockled

PROVENANCE

(1) THE BENEDICTINE MONASTERY OF SAN SISTO, PIACENZA. This leaf comes from Boston, Public Library, MS. pf. Med. 97, the Matins and Lauds volume of the San Sisto Choir Psalter (the other volume, sold at Christie's, 12 November 2008, lot 48, includes only Prime to Compline). It is described in the San Sisto library catalogue of c.1500 as 'Psalterium magnum nocturnum signat. 12'. (2) When the French were about to attack Piacenza in the early 19th century, the choirbooks were hidden in an attic of the home of one of the monks, then forgotten, and sold by his descendants in 1864, to: (3) MICHELE CAVALERI (1813-90), lawyer and art collector, of Milan, who sold them to: (4) ENRICO CERNUSCHI (1821-96), of Milan (later exiled), who took them to Paris; part of his collection was acquired by: (5) Hiersemann. (6) The Boston volume reappeared in Jacques Rosenthal Catalogue 27, 1902, no.37 (ill.); thence to: (7) MAURICE KANN, banker and collector, of Paris. (8) ROBERT FORRER (1866-1947), museum curator, archaeologist, and collector, of Strasbourg, and finally: (9) Julius Hess, of Bern, his catalogue 1, 1935, no.5; bought by Boston in 1940; Hess doubtless removed and kept the leaf as it appears (10) in the sale of the Nachlass of Hess, sold by Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern, Kat.XVIII, 1-2 December 1941, lot 332.

The Choir Psalter is likely to have been the last of the set to be illuminated, even though the script and foliation looks coeval with the others. Its illumination has been attributed to the MASTER OF THE GRADUALS OF SAN SALVATORE, and the young MATTEO DA MILANO, and indeed the present initial can also be attributed to Matteo. Originally from Milan, Matteo worked largely in Rome and Ferrara in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. His work in the Choir Psalter is his earliest known work. The attribution in the Christie's catalogue was accepted by P.-L. Mulas in M. Bollati, ed., I Corali Benedettini di San Sisto a Piacenza, 2012, pp.45-66, and we are grateful to him and to M. Bollati, who independently attributed our leaf to the San Sisto series of volumes. We subsequently established that fol.151 is missing from the Boston volume.