{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O86992"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O86992/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AT7606/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AT7606/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AT7606","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O86992/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O86992","accessionNumber":"432","objectType":"Manuscript cutting","titles":[{"title":"Historiated initial from a Gradual for the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele a Murano","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"This is one of a series of fragments from choirbooks of a type known as Graduals that were made for the San Michele a Murano monastery in Venice. The majority of these fragments were illuminated by a monk of the Camaldolese Order in Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci. At this time, Venice was not a centre of illumination. In 1401, the Dominican nuns wanting advice on the making of books were told by Goivanni Dominici, a Dominican from Florence, to study the choirbooks of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which contained Silvestro’s work. The monastery was the home of a number of scribes, painters and illuminators in the 14th and 15th centuries. They worked both for their own house and for other churches and even secular customers. \r\n\r\nSilvestro may have worked as part of a team with some ornamentation done by others. This particular fragment is believed to be the work of an assistant, the Master of the Canzoni. The fragment shows an initial A for the Mass for Easter Tuesday, with a bearded prophet holding a scroll. The drawing seems slightly clumsy, but the illuminator is clearly working in the same style as Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci. \r\n\r\nNineteenth-century enthusiasts altered medieval artefacts to suit their taste. Medieval illuminated manuscripts could be cut up to make them more marketable and pleasing to the collector. Choirbooks from San Michele a Murano in Venice were dismembered for their images. Single leaves survive, but also initials, as here, cut to shape. It is not known when the choirbooks were cut up. The Museum seems to have acquired this piece in the late 1850s.","physicalDescription":"Cut-out historiated initial A in orange, yellow and gold. Acanthus decoration in grey, blue, pink, green and gold stems from the initial. Inside is a prophet holding a scroll, set against a gold background, with a long grey beard and hair and wearing a green tunic and blue-lined grey cloak. The initial introduces an Offertory for Easter Monday.\n\nText: [Quem queritis surre]xit si[cut dixit, A]lle[luia], from Offertory for Easter Monday; on verso, A [qua spientie potavit]. Introit for Easter Tuesday\nStaves of 4 red lines; Square notation.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Master of the Canzoni","id":"A11224"},"association":{"text":"formerly attributed to","id":"THES284153"},"note":"attributed by Levi d'Ancona"},{"name":{"text":"Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci","id":"A11223"},"association":{"text":"attributed to","id":"THES286691"},"note":"attributed by Gaudenz Freuler"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"parchment","id":"AAT11851"},{"text":"pigment","id":"AAT13109"},{"text":"gold-leaf","id":"x33207"}],"techniques":[{"text":"illumination","id":"AAT220539"},{"text":"writing","id":"AAT54698"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Water-based pigment, gold leaf and ink on parchment","categories":[{"text":"Manuscripts","id":"THES48922"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Manuscript cutting","id":"THES275182"},{"text":"Music","id":"THES253065"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AT7606"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"I","shelf":"81","box":"L"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Manuscript cutting","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence","id":"x39387"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Florence","id":"x28848"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli","id":"x39387"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1392 -1399","earliest":"1392-01-01","latest":"1399-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"240","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"170","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"37","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"stave","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Made in Florence at the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli, for San Michele a Murano in Venice. Bought before 1874 when it was transferred from the Art Museum.\nA duplicate number MS.969 was assigned to this object in error and was subsequently cancelled.\n\nSeven fragments, whose date and place of acquisition are unknown, arrived at the South Kensington Museum by an early date; four (2868, 3045, 3074 and 3087) appear in a register recording the internal transfer from the Art Museum to the Library on 6 December 1863 of a group of 241 illuminations, and a further three are recorded in a similar transfer in 1874 (431, 432 and 434). The remaining thirteen cuttings (D.217 to 229-1906) were acquired on 22 June 1906 from Bernard Quaritch for a total cost of £60. Two of them depicting prophets were lost during the Second World War (D.220-1906 and D.223-1906).\n\nCuttings from the same set of graduals in the V&amp;A collection: 431, 432, 434, 2868, 3045, 3074, 3087, D.217-1906, D.218-1906, D.219-1906, D.221-1906, D.222-1906, D.224-1906, D.225-1906, D.226-1906, D.227-1906,D.228-1906, D.229-1906. \n\nThis piece is part of a series of over fifty identified cuttings from two different graduals now distributed through various collections. Related cuttings are in: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library; Stockholm, National Museum; Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett; Paris, Musée Marmottan; Padua, Museo Civico; London, The British Library.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Historiated initial A with a prophet, from a Gradual for the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele a Murano, Italy (Florence), 1392-1399.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"<u>Catalogue of illuminated manuscripts : Part II, Miniatures, leaves, and cuttings</u>, by S.C. Cockerell and E.F. Strange (London: HMSO, 1908, 1st edition).","id":"AUTH355671"},"details":"p. 85.","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"<u>Catalogue of Miniatures, Leaves, and Cuttings from Illuminated Manuscripts. Victoria and Albert Museum. Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design</u>, by S.C. Cockerell and C. Harcourt Smith (London: HMSO, 1923, 2nd edition).","id":"AUTH349022"},"details":"pp. 77-78 (as Siena, 15th century).","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"George R. Bent, 'The Scriptorium at S. Maria degli Angeli and Fourteenth Century Manuscript Illumination: Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Don Lorenzo Monaco, and Giovanni del Biondo', in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 55. Bd., H. 4 (1992), pp. 507-523."},{"reference":{"text":"Mirella Levi d'Ancona, <u>The reconstructed \"Diurno Domenicale\" from Santa Maria degli Angeli</u>, Florence: Centro Di, 1993.","id":"AUTH357478"},"details":"pp. 29, 49, 55.","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Kanter, L., B.D. Boehm et al. <u>Painting and illumination in early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450</u>. New York, 1994.","id":"AUTH348989"},"details":"pp. 155-176.","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Watson, Rowan. <i>Vandals and Enthusiasts: Views of Illumination in the Nineteenth Century</i>, London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1995","id":"AUTH354797"},"details":"no. 6.","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Gaudenz Freuler, <u>Tendencies of Gothic in Florence: Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci</u> (Florence: Giunti, 1997).","id":"AUTH357495"},"details":"pp. 453-521 (esp. pp. 475-486).","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Watson, R.<i> Illuminated manuscripts and their makers. An account based on the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum</i>. London, 2003.","id":"AUTH348649"},"details":"p. 92.","free":""}],"production":"Made at the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence.","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"scroll","id":"AAT28629"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["prophet"],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Cut-out historiated initial A (bearded Prophet) from the Gradual of San Michele a Murano, Venice.\r\nIlluminated by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci\r\nFlorence, 1392-1399\r\nBought by the Museum before 1863","date":{"text":"1995","earliest":"1995-01-01","latest":"1995-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["432"],"accessionNumberNum":"432","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Cancelled number","id":"THES52962"},"number":"969"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LT8870"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-30","recordCreationDate":"2003-12-10","availableToBook":false}}