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Gradual for Monastic Use (Augustinian?)
Workshop of: Pacino di Bonaguida (active 1303–1340)
Italian (Florence)
Medieval (Gothic)
between 1303 and 1340
Place of Manufacture: Florence, Italy
Medium/Technique
Tempera and ink on parchment; bindings of calfskin over boards with metal clasps
Dimensions
Overall (page dimensions): 35.7 x 26.2 cm (14 1/16 x 10 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Mrs. Arthur Croft—The Gardner Brewer Collection
Accession Number01.6454
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsBooks and manuscripts – Manuscripts
DescriptionA gradual (a liturgical book, containing chants for the Mass) for monastic use, possibly the Augstinian order, with 174 folios (ff.) and 2 leaves:
ff. 1 - 109: Gradual: Temporale and Sanctorale (partial)
ff. 109v - 113: Litany
ff. 114 - 160: Gradual: Temporale (continued)
ff. 161 - 168: Temporale sequences
(f. 168v: Originally blank, with a 15th-century addition in Italian on three staves: "Sanctus della domenica…")
ff. 169 - 174v: Credo (four repetitions of "Patrem omnipotentem," each with a different melody)
Each page with 1 column of 9 staves. Bounding lines in blind, doubled and full-length to top and bottom, writing lines in blind, top and bottom of line of writing ruled. Square heightened stemmatic neumes on a four-line red staff, c-clef indicated.
Lacking outermost bifolium of last quire (one folio before f. 169 and one folio after f. 174). Catchwords lower center, last verso of each quire. Contemporary foliation in outer margin of each recto in epigraphic roman capitals alternating red and blue.
Written in an Italian rotunda script in black ink with red rubrics. One- to two-staff-high initials in red and blue throughout with red spiralling foliate infill and blue filigree or vice versa, with contrasting blue or red berries. In-text initials one-line throughout alternating red with blue harping or vice versa.
Seven 2- to 3-staff-high historiated initials painted in the workshop of Pacino di Bonaguida (active 1303-1340).
Written and illuminated in Florence, illuminated at the workshop of Pacino di Bonaguida (active 1303-1340). Rubrics indicate monastic use (with references to "brothers" and "deacons"), while the litany includes "Augustinus Cenobi," possibly indicating Augustinian use.
ff. 1 - 109: Gradual: Temporale and Sanctorale (partial)
ff. 109v - 113: Litany
ff. 114 - 160: Gradual: Temporale (continued)
ff. 161 - 168: Temporale sequences
(f. 168v: Originally blank, with a 15th-century addition in Italian on three staves: "Sanctus della domenica…")
ff. 169 - 174v: Credo (four repetitions of "Patrem omnipotentem," each with a different melody)
Each page with 1 column of 9 staves. Bounding lines in blind, doubled and full-length to top and bottom, writing lines in blind, top and bottom of line of writing ruled. Square heightened stemmatic neumes on a four-line red staff, c-clef indicated.
Lacking outermost bifolium of last quire (one folio before f. 169 and one folio after f. 174). Catchwords lower center, last verso of each quire. Contemporary foliation in outer margin of each recto in epigraphic roman capitals alternating red and blue.
Written in an Italian rotunda script in black ink with red rubrics. One- to two-staff-high initials in red and blue throughout with red spiralling foliate infill and blue filigree or vice versa, with contrasting blue or red berries. In-text initials one-line throughout alternating red with blue harping or vice versa.
Seven 2- to 3-staff-high historiated initials painted in the workshop of Pacino di Bonaguida (active 1303-1340).
Written and illuminated in Florence, illuminated at the workshop of Pacino di Bonaguida (active 1303-1340). Rubrics indicate monastic use (with references to "brothers" and "deacons"), while the litany includes "Augustinus Cenobi," possibly indicating Augustinian use.
Provenance1874, probably by descent from Gardner Brewer (b. 1806 - d. 1874), Boston, to his daughter, Caroline Abigail Brewer (Mrs. Arthur) Croft (d. 1898), Boston; 1901, bequest of Mrs. Arthur Croft to the MFA. (Accession Date: July 1, 1901)