Christ in Gethsemane, in a large initial, on a leaf from a Choirbook

Christ in Gethsemane, in a large initial, on a leaf from a Choirbook, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum, [northern Italy or southern France, last decades of the thirteenth century], single large leaf, with an initial ‘I’ (opening “In monte oliveti …”, a responsory for the first nocturn on Maundy Thursday), in pink and blue, enclosing Christ with a detailed white face, wearing orange robes and kneeling in a hilly landscape with foliage, lifting his hands up to the heavens, all before a dark blue sky, the top of the initial within an arch, large initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, rubrics in red, penwork flowerheads touched in red used as line-fillers, 8 lines of text with music on a 4-line red stave, recovered from later reuse on a binding and hence scuffed and with worm damage in places, trimmed to edges of text at inner vertical edge with losses to border decoration there, some small holes and losses at edges restored with modern vellum, overall fair condition, 395 x 262mm. *** Acquired by the present owner in Bloomsbury Auctions, 7 December 2016 (lot 44).

Estimate:£800

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