Lot 7B email save

ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT LEAF. [Northern Italy, Lomb

ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT LEAF. [Northern Italy, Lombardy, 15th century] Manuscript vellum leaf from an antiphonal, with a large illuminated initial incorporating a peacock.

[North Italy, Lombardy, 15th century]. Large initial "V" (114 x 110 mm.) in red, blue, mauve and green with filigree highlights in white on a burnished gold ground, the peacock perched on a fantastical strawberry plant with two flanking branches from which emerge leafy plants, quarter border decoration with hairline tendrils in various colors terminating in burnished gold disks and sprays of acanthus and scrolling flowers and buds in blue, green, and mauve. Leaf size 515 x 377 mm, with six lines of Latin chant in a rounded gothic hand in brown ink, the music written in square and diamond-shaped neumes on four-line staves in brown with the second line in red, the verso with a smaller initial in blue with red and white foliate decoration and six lines of music. Condition: some loss to gold ground, otherwise excellent. The style of illumination of this leaf is typical of Lombardy.