Leaf from an Antiphonary: Floral Initial (recto); Text (verso) (c. 1475): Art, History and Details

Leaf from an Antiphonary: Floral Initial (recto); Text (verso) (c. 1475) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The leaf comes from an Antiphonale, a liturgical book that contains the melodies and texts of all the chants of the Liturgy of the Hours, the antiphons. These include the psalms, responsories and hymns, which are arranged in the book in the order of the church year. The antiphons served clergymen and monks or nuns for their service in the choir stalls of the church.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from an Antiphonary: Floral Initial (recto); Text (verso)
• Date: c. 1475
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Overall: 50.7 x 35.4 cm (19 15/16 x 13 15/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2022.134

A detail from the museum

Churches had mostly two copies of this book because the clergymen were sitting in the coir stall on both sides of the high altar and therefore needed a copy for each side.

Collection credit

Gift in memory of Robert M. Gotwald by his children, Karen Gotwald, Michael Gotwald, David Gotwald, and Robbie Duncan

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ege, Otto F. “Manuscripts of the Middle Ages.” The American Magazine of Art 23, no. 5 (1931).
• Ricci, Seymour de, William Jerome Wilson, Anne M. Nill, and W. H. Bond. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. 1935.
• Gwara, Scott. Otto Ege's Manuscripts: A Study of Ege's Manuscript Collections, Portfolios, and Retail Trade ; with a Comprehensive Handlist of Manuscripts Collected or Sold. 2013.

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.