THE TRINITY: a historiated initial on a leaf from a Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Italy (Pavia), late 15th century (c. 1480–1500)]

THE TRINITY: a historiated initial on a leaf from a Gradual, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum

[Italy (Pavia), late 15th century (c. 1480–1500)]

a leaf, c. 475 × 330 mm, 7 lines of text and music in square notation on four-line red staves, the ruled space c. 375 × 220 mm, the rastrum c. 27 mm, the text comprising the end of a mass for the Dedication of a church and beginning of a mass for the Trinity, with rubric ‘Missa in honore sancte Trinitatis’, with an initial ‘B’(enedicta sit sancta Trinitas) depicting a three-headed Trinity, c. 110 × 110mm, foliation in red ink ‘CCXV’ in the upper margin, a catchword surrounded by a circle of penwork in the lower margin; slight water damage at the top, not affecting the initial, slight cockling, small pigment losses, some rubbing; in a giltwood frame.

PROVENANCE

1. Inscriptions in pencil on the verso include ‘JBR [or JBK?] No. 508 20.VI.37’ and price-codes in lire, probably Leo Olschki’s.
2. Sold in our rooms, 5 July 2016, lot 33; bought by:
3. The Boehlen Collection, Bern, MS 1435

ILLUMINATION

The style of the illumination is characteristic of Pavia, and closely related to the choirbooks of Pavia Cathedral, as suggested by Pier Luigi Mulas (2007).

The three-headed (or three-faced) Trinity was sometimes used by artists in an attempt to convey the difficult-to-represent ‘three in one, one in three’ concept of the Trinity.

REFERENCES

P.L. Mulas, ‘Le Maître des Graduels de San Salvatore de Pavie: Enluminures, peintures, xylographies’, Quand la peinture était dans les livres: Mélanges en l’honneur de François Avril, ed. by M. Hofmann and C. Zöhl (Paris, 2007), pp. 223–33.