note (deco)
17 large white-vine illuminated initials (fols. 8r, 15r, 20v, 22v, 24r, 25v, 27r, 30v, 37r, 58r, 65r, 73r, 80v, 94v, 104v, 135r and 150r); eleven half-page rectangular miniatures within full white-vine illuminated borders, showing the Nativity of Christ (fol. 7r, Hours of the Virgin), the Magi (fol. 7v, Matins), the Purification, set in a landscape (fol. 37r, Office of the Purification), the Annunciation (fol. 58v, Office of the Annunciation), the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (fol. 65r, Office of Saint Elizabeth), the Virgin and Child sending snow onto the Esquiline Hill in Rome (fol. 73r, Office of the Virgin of the Snow), the burial of the Virgin, and her assumption into Heaven, between two angels (fol. 80v, Office of the Assumption), the Nativity of the Virgin (fol. 94v, Office of the Nativity of the Virgin), the meeting at the Golden Gate (fol. 104v, Office of the Conception of the Virgin), a funeral (fol. 135r, Office of the Dead), and David in prayer in a landscape (fol. 156r, Penitential Psalms). Contains unusal iconography, including the birth of Saint John the Baptist represented by two holy women ministering to the pregnant Saint Elizabeth, who lies in bed before the birth (fol. 65r), and the portent which took place in Rome in the hot summer of 352, when snow miraculously fell on the Esquiline Hill to indicate the Virgin’s choice for the location of the future basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (fol. 73r).Most opening words of prayers in capitals, sometimes in burnished gold; one- and 2-line initials throughout in alternating blue with extensive red penwork and gold with extensive purple penwork.
provenance
Written for Giovanni Colonna (1456-1508) or a member of his family (see below); William Bragge 1823-1884); probably no. 63 in Burlington Fine Arts Club 1874, p. 13, lent by Bragge; his sale, Sotheby’s, 7 June 1876, lot 474; Quaritch cat. 31 (June 1876), no. 171, and Quaritch, General Catalogue (1877), no.18381; Edward Quaile (d. 1900); his sale, Sotheby’s, 10 May 1901, lot 223, to Leighton; J. Martini, cat. 17 (1921), no. 17, and cat. 18 (1922), no. 14, at $1,100; C. L. Ricketts; acquired by the Lilly Library with the Ricketts Collection in 1961.
