Antiques for Sale > Books, Manuscripts & Autographs

IM-4608: (150x180mm) Original cutting from a highly illuminated manuscript Choir Book. Executed by hand on animal parchment with tempera and burnished gold.

On verso are vestiges of black square note music on a red four-line stave with rotunda script in black. The figures of the soldiers show evidence of retouching. Italy: (probably Bologna), c. late 1200’s.

A superb miniature within the initial “M” in gold and tempera. The subject is The Three Marys at the Tomb (Mary Magdalene, the Virgin Mary, and Mary the mother of James) – following the account in Matthew 28:3.

The three women are holding jars of ointment and approaching the tomb on which sits an Angel in a white tunic with wings in green, red and white. At the base of the tomb are two soldiers.

The style of this initial has strong Byzantine Influence and is associated with a group of Bolognese choirbooks illuminated with figures having dark eyes.