Leaf from an Antiphonary: Historiated Initial P with the Prophet Samuel; Arms of the Visconti Family and the Olivetan Order (c. 1439–47): Art, History and Details

Leaf from an Antiphonary: Historiated Initial P with the Prophet Samuel; Arms of the Visconti Family and the Olivetan Order (c. 1439–47) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Olivetan Master (Italian).

The work and its context

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

This leaf is distinguished by a large initial P depicting Samuel, the last and one of the greatest of Israel’s judges. It introduces the text Preparte corda vestra domino et servite (“Prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve”). In the lower margin are the arms of the Visconti family, rulers of Milan, featuring an eagle (left) and a coiled serpent (right). At bottom center is the emblem of the Olivetan Order, a reformed branch of the Benedictines founded in 1319 known as the “white monks.” The Olivetan monastery in Milan was founded in 1400 and it appears that this leaf belonged to a set of choral books presented to the monastery by one of the Visconti, perhaps about 1439–47. The so-called Olivetan Master takes his name from a luxuriously illustrated psalter made for the order’s monastery in Milan, where he was undoubtedly a monk.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from an Antiphonary: Historiated Initial P with the Prophet Samuel; Arms of the Visconti Family and the Olivetan Order
• Date: c. 1439–47
• Creator attribution: Olivetan Master (Italian)
• Culture: Italy, Milan
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Each leaf: 59.3 x 42.7 cm (23 3/8 x 16 13/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1999.131

Collection credit

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.
• Stones, Alison, "An Italian Miniature in the Gabier-Parry Collection," Burlington Magazine 111 (1969).
• Toesca, Ilaria, "In margine al Magister Vitae Imperatorum," Paragone (1969).

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.