Gradual, Latin. Northern Europe, sixteenth century

Cutting. 250 by 230mm. Single column, part of 6 lines of text, ruled in ink; gothic hand.

Text: Opening initial from the Mass for Easter.

Decoration: Large initial 'R' in heavily raised burnished gold, infilled and surrounded by flowers, fruit, foliage, a putto, a hound, a deer, a snail, a butterfly, a bird, a snake and the profile of a bearded Green Man; small capitals in blue.
Provenance: The style is northern Renaissance, most likely Netherlandish (or Spanish in the Netherlandish style). Possibly purchased from Sotheby's, in 1957. On 3 April of that year, Sotheby’s sold two large illuminated initials from a choir book described as ‘German, 16th century’, lot 74, ‘initial A in gold, the field decorated with flowers, a putto, peacock, snail, etc’., and lot 75, ‘a similar initial R from the same manuscript’, which included another initial probably Reed fragment 25.
References: Manion, Vines, de Hamel no. 99; Reed Early Bibles no. 61.
Shelfmark: RMM Fragment 37.

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).