DPL Reed MMF25

Gradual, Latin. Italy (perhaps Lombardy), fifteenth century

Part of single leaf. 495 by 250mm. Gothic liturgical hand.

Text: The end of the Mass for SS. Simon and Jude (28 October) and the opening initial for the Introit for All Saints’ Day (1 November). Music on a 4-line red stave.
Decoration: Small capitals in red or blue; large pink initial ‘G’ with floral border.
Provenance: May be the ‘illuminated initial G on a fragment of a leaf from a choir-book on vellum, the initial filled with foliate decoration, with marginal decoration’ sold by Sotheby’s, 3 April 1957, part of lot 75, bought by Maggs, from whom the Reed fragment was purchased later that year.
References: Manion, Vines, de Hamel no. 88; Reed Early Bibles no. 47.
Shelfmark: RMM Fragment 25.

Description reproduced from Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections (London, 1989) by permission of the authors (Christopher de Hamel, Margaret Manion, and the family of Vera F. Vines).