Original leaf from a Spanish Antiphonal on animal parchment. (632 x 430mm – 24 7/8 x 17 1/8’’).
The illumination, manuscript text and music (six lines of dark brown music on a red five-line stave) were beautifully executed by hand over 400 years ago!!! The center section of the “I” which had been excised was skillfully restored in the 18th century or earlier.
Dated 1599 on recto and inscribed from the Cistercian Monastery of the Incarnation, Cordoba, Spain.
This leaf is the opening for Holy Saturday. The large miniature painting surrounding the “I” depicts the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist standing by a stylized empty cross with the village and countryside in the background. The text begins part of Psalm 4:10: “In pace…” (In peace and into the same I shall sleep and rest).
Surrounding the music is an elaborate border full of floral décor, portraits, shields, and animals all on a gold ground!
Included in the border is a full portrait of the Prophet Jeremiah, an angel holding the instruments of the Passion, a painting opposite of Jeremiah depicting symbols of the Passion of Christ (the pillar to which Christ was bound during the Flagellation, the cock, ladder for the decent from the cross…), goldfinches (symbols of the Passion of Christ), goats heads (top) which are symbols of the Last Judgment), heraldic symbols are in the four corners and scales are in the center of the bottom margin.
Shipped unmatted
