Collection ID: 0023 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Antiphonary, diurnal (Ambrosian Rite)

Other related names

• Follower of Birago, Giovan Pietro, active 1471-1513 and Master B. F. (sometimes identified as Francisco Binasco), artist (http://viaf.org/viaf/8191141)
• Master B. F., active 1486-1545, artist (http://viaf.org/viaf/63845407)
• Monastero di S. Ambrogio (Milan, Italy), former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/122929778)
• White, Henry, former owner
• Perkins, Oliver Henry, -1912, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/17140028)
• Lewis, John Frederick, 1860-1932, former owner (http://viaf.org/viaf/63874811/)
• Lewis, Anne Baker, former owner

Funders

• Council on Library and Information Resources

Call number

Lewis E 10
(Philadelphia, United States, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1450582
• deRicci: 44
• Leaves-of-gold: 61

Publisher

Free Library of Philadelphia

Language

Latin

Origin

Place

Milan, Italy

Summary

This Diurnal Antiphonary contains liturgical texts and their musical settings for saints' feast days from the vigil of Saint Martin of Tours to the Feast of All Saints (the Sanctorale cycle, fols. 1r-211r), followed by commemorations for the Virgin Mary, Saint Ambrosius of Milan, Saint Benedict of Nursia, and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (fols. 211v-216v) and finally antiphons for the vigil of Saint Benedict (fols. 216v-220v). It was made for the Monastery of Sant'Ambrogio Maggiore in Milan early in the sixteenth century, whose coat of arms appear in the bottom margin of fol. 1r (the scourge held by a fist). Two other choirbooks from the same series were sold in 1902 at the same sale as this book (Sotehby's, London, 21 April 1902, lots 46 and 48). The text is accompanied by five-line staves with musical notation, and is adorned with a number of inhabited and historiated initials. The largest, on fol. 1r, shows Saint Martin of Tours dividing his cloak with a beggar. The following miniatures show Saint Benedict (as a marginal illustration, fol. 66r), Saint Victor (fol. 75v), Saints Protasius and Gervasius (fol. 85v), Saint John the Baptist with the Agnus Dei (fol. 89v), Saints Peter and Paul (fol. 95r), Saint Mary Magdalene (fol. 110v), Saints Nazarius and Celsus (fol. 118r), Maccabees (fol. 121v), the Assumption of the Virgin (fol. 132v), Saint Bernard (fol. 138r), Saint Bartholomew (fol. 142v), Saint John the Baptist holding his head (fol. 147v), the Birth of the Virgin (fol. 151r), Saint Satyrus (fol. 157r), Saint Michael (fol. 162r), the Pentecost (fol. 168r), an apostle (fol. 182r), a male martyr (fol. 187r), three martyrs (fol. 190v), Saint Tecla (fol. 202r), and the Virgin Mary (fol. 206r). The artist has been identified as a follower of both Giovan Pietro Birago and Master B. F., notable Milanese illuminators active around 1500. At least one other unidentified artist, of lesser talent, participated in some of the decoration. At least six leaves are missing (between fols. 169 and 176) and two initials have been excised (presumably for their miniatures, from fols. 20r and 195v).

Notes

• Extensive evidence of damage and repairs to parchment
   
• Some text erased and/or rewritten
   
• Additional musical notation on fol. 112v, in a later hand
   
• Marginal annotations in various later hands
   
• Two scribes: one hand executed bulk of manuscript; scribe two responsible for fols. 216v-220v
   
• Last gathering of four folios is paper attached by strips of parchment, some with musical notation (fols. 217-220)
   

Extent

I+220+i; 578 x 405 mm bound to 594 x 436 mm

Foliation

Early foliation in red ink, right recto; modern foliation in black ink, lower right recto

Collation

1-21 (8), 22 (8, -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8), 23-27 (8), 28 (4)

Support

Mixed

Binding

Italian; early seventeenth-century blind stamped red morocco over pasteboard; stamped in gold on the spine: "LIBRO CORALE DEL CANTO AMBROSIANO"

Layout

One column of thirty-sixlines; square and lozenge-shaped musical notation on six five-line staves in red, black, and yellow ink (fols. 217-220: square musical notation on four-line red staves); hard point ruled; written area: 404 x 280 mm

Decoration

One large historiated initial with full foliate border; twenty historiated initials with foliate extensions; one marginal figure; four illuminated initials; two excised initials repaired with vellum patch; numerous decorated initials in red, blue, and black ink with pen-work decoration

Script

Gothic--rotunda

Provenance

• Monastery of Sant' Ambrogio Maggiore, Milan (sixteenth century; coat of arms on fol. 1r); Henry White, London (nineteenth century); Sotheby's sale (London, 21 April 1902) lot 47; Symes; Oliver Henry Perkins, Des Moines (his bookplate inside front cover); Anderson Galleries sale (New York, 23-24 March 1926) lot 537; John Frederick Lewis, Philadelphia; gift of Anne Baker Lewis to the Free Library of Philadelphia, 1936
   

Related resources

• De Ricci, Seymour de, with the assistance of W. J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, vol. 2 (New York,: H. W. Wilson, 1935-40), p. 2032, no. 44.
• Free Library of Philadelphia, A Descriptive Catalogue of the John Frederick Lewis Collection of European Manuscripts in the Free Library of Philadelphia, compiled by Edwin Wolf, 2nd, with an introduction by Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach (Philadelphia: The Library, 1937), pp. 10-14, no. 10.
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Leaves of Gold: Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections, edited by James R. Tanis (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001), pp. 177-178, no. 61

Keywords

• Antiphonary
• Italian
• Italy
• 16th century
• Illumination
• Historiated initial

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Free Library of Philadelphia Lewis E 10: Antiphonary, diurnal (Ambrosian Rite) are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  To the extent possible under law, Free Library of Philadelphia, Special Collections has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Free Library of Philadelphia Lewis E 10: Antiphonary, diurnal (Ambrosian Rite). This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• fol. 1r — Sanctorale, from the vigil of Saint Martin of Tours to the Feast of All Saints
• fol. 211v — Commemorations of the Virgin Mary, Saint Ambrose of Milan, Saint Benedict of Nursia, and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
• fol. 216v — Antiphons for the Vigil of Saint Benedict

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Oliver Henry Perkins
• Inside front cover — Bookplate, unidentified
• Inside front cover — Notations in pencil
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Print catalog clippings
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Hand-written description in Italian
• fol. 1r — Historiated initial U, Saint Martin of Tours dividing his cloak
• fol. 1r — Coat of arms, church of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan
• fol. 1r — Full foliate border
• fol. 20r — Unfinished initial D (paste-down replacement for excised miniature)
• fol. 20r — Partial foliate border
• fol. 66r — Small miniature, Saint Benedict
• fol. 75v — Inhabited initial G, Saint Victor
• fol. 83r — Illuminated initial E
• fol. 85v — Inhabited initial H, Saints Protasius and Gervasius
• fol. 89v — Inhabited initial P, Saint John the Baptist
• fol. 94r — Illuminated initial H
• fol. 95r — Inhabited initial I, Saints Peter and Paul
• fol. 107v — Illuminated initial B
• fol. 110v — Inhabited initial C, Saint Mary Magdalene
• fol. 118r — Inhabited initial I, Saints Nazarius and Celsus
• fol. 121v — Inhabited initial H, Maccabees
• fol. 132v — Historiated initial S, Assumption of the Virgin
• fol. 138r — Inhabited initial B, Saint Bernard
• fol. 142v — Inhabited initial G, Saint Bartholomew
• fol. 147v — Inhabited initial, Saint John the Baptist
• fol. 151r — Historiated initial E, Birth of the Virgin
• fol. 157r — Inhabited initial N, Saint Satyrus
• fol. 162r — Inhabited initial F, Saint Michael
• fol. 168r — Historiated initial I, Pentecost
• fol. 182r — Inhabited initial C, an apostle
• fol. 187r — Inhabited initial P, male martyr
• fol. 190v — Inhabited initial I, three martyrs
• fol. 195v — Unfinished initial P (paste-down replacement for excised miniature)
• fol. 202r — Inhabited initial C, Saint Tecla
• fol. 202v — Illuminated initial C
• fol. 206r — Inhabited initial R, the Virgin Mary
• fol. 206v — Illuminated initial L
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Print catalog clippings
• Flyleaf 1 recto — Hand-written description in Italian