Bifolium from an Antiphonary: Initial M with Saint Dominic Preaching and Music (c. 1320–40): Art, History and Details

Bifolium from an Antiphonary: Initial M with Saint Dominic Preaching and Music (c. 1320–40) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Primo Miniatore di San Domenico (Italian).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The representation of Saint Dominic (1170–1221), founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers, in this initial suggests that this double page was at one time part of a manuscript made for a Dominican convent. Saint Dominic traveled much, preaching throughout Europe, and was particularly venerated in Bologna, the city in which he died and was buried. The illuminator of this initial is named after a volume he decorated of Seneca’s works (now in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris). His workshop specialized in large-scale manuscripts destined for wealthy religious institutions in the region of Emilia, for which Bologna was the artistic and intellectual center.

Object facts

• Title: Bifolium from an Antiphonary: Initial M with Saint Dominic Preaching and Music
• Date: c. 1320–40
• Creator attribution: Primo Miniatore di San Domenico (Italian)
• Culture: Italy, Bologna
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
• Dimensions: Sheet: 51 x 37.7 cm (20 1/16 x 14 13/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1985.60

Collection credit

Delia E. Holden Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.