Gradual (c. 1520): Art, History and Details

Gradual (c. 1520) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Girolamo dai Libri (Italian, 1474–1555).

The work and its context

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

The liturgical book known simply as a “gradual” was the principal choir book used during the Mass. They were produced in multiple volumes, sometimes as many as 12, in order to cover the entire liturgical year. Every church required a set of graduals in addition to other liturgical books such as missals, antiphonaries, and gospel lectionaries. This volume appears to be the lone survivor from a larger set. Its illuminations were painted by an illuminator working in the circle of the much-esteemed and highly imitated painter Girolamo dai Libri of Verona, who was a prolific painter of altarpieces as well as illuminations for books.

Object facts

• Title: Gradual
• Date: c. 1520
• Creator attribution: Girolamo dai Libri (Italian, 1474–1555)
• Culture: Italy, Verona
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; wood binding
• Dimensions: Codex: 51.1 x 35.6 x 8.9 cm (20 1/8 x 14 x 3 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1921.140

A detail from the museum

Girolamo dai Libri was only 16 years old when he painted his first altarpiece.

Collection credit

General Income 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.