Gradual

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Accession number:

MS M.887

Title:

Gradual

Created:

Castile, Spain, ca. 1500-1510.

Credit:

Gift of William S. Glazier, 1958.

Description:

2 leaves (1 column, 4-5 lines text, 4-5 four and five-line staves), matted : vellum, ill. ; 928 x 600 mm

Provenance:

Perhaps executed for a member of the Acuña family of Castile (Acuña arms, the Five Wounds of Christ, in border decoration of various leaves); Arthur Rau, Paris; gift of William S. Glazier in 1958.

Notes:

Ms. gradual single leaves written and illuminated in Castile, Spain, ca. 1500-1510.
Decoration: M.887.1: 1 historiated initial A containing the Miracle of the Gentleman of Cologne, full border decoration with historiated vignettes.
Decoration: M.887.2: 1 historiated initial R containing the Resurrection, full border decoration with historiated vignettes.
Musical notation: 4-5-line red staves with square notes
9 leaves were offered by Arthur Rau of Paris in 1958; a 10th appeared subsequently: 1. (Initial A) Miracle of the Gentleman of Cologne [PML M.887.1] 2. (Initial R) Resurrection [PML M.887.2] 3. (Initial S) Pentecost [Strouse Collection] 4. (Initial I) Miracle of the Gentleman of Cologne [formerly Strouse, now Getty] 5. (Initial P) Nativity [Detroit Public Library] 6. (Initial R) Expulsion from the Temple [Detroit Public Library] 7. (Initial A) Ascension/Resurrection [Detroit Public Library] 8. (Initial N) Miracle of the Gentleman of Cologne [Detroit Public Library] 9. (Initial Q) Miracle of the Gentleman of Cologne [Sotheby's leaf - to Yale?] 10. (Initial S) Miracle of the Gentleman of Cologne [Jörn Günther leaf]

Script:

textura

Language:

Latin

Resources:

Description/Bibliography

Century:

Genres:

Illuminated manuscripts

Musical notation

Catalog Link:

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Classification:

Manuscript

Department:

Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts

This elaborate leaf contains the Introit for the Mass of the First Sunday in Advent. In the initial A (of Ad), the "Gentleman of Cologne," holding a rosary and wearing a chaplet of roses, kneels before the Virgin and child, who had appeared miraculously. The knight on the right was about to avenge the death of his brother, slain by the gentleman in a quarrel. The knight, however, was deterred by the miraculous appearance and the two men became friends. The five wounds of Christ, shown three times in the borders, was the emblem of the rosary confraternity. The two depictions of Hercules slaying Ladon, the serpent/dragon guarding the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides have local meaning, as Hercules was the legendary founder of Toledo. The Hercules figures were inspired by Antonio Pollaiuolo's famous engraved Battle of the Ten Nudes (1465). The roses in the borders refer to the confraternity of the rosary.