AA. VV. - Illuminated Manuscript on Parchment - 1640

Enormous choral manuscript, front and back, with gold initials on parchment.
Large sheet from a liturgical choir manuscript on parchment, written on both sides and enriched with a refined decorative apparatus. 9 initials decorated in gold leaf and colors, enhanced by gold leaf stippling; one initial features an internal design depicting a fruit tree. The historiated initials in gold leaf and colors, together with the monumental script intended for collective reading, provide a mature example of the liturgical production of northern Italy in the early seventeenth century, at a moment when the manuscript tradition still coexists with the culture of printing.
Market value
Single large-format choral sheets, with gilded initials and figurative decoration, dating to the seventeenth century and from the Italian region, are consistently sought after by the antique and collecting market; their value is supported by the presence of gold leaf, the legibility of the text, and the quality of the ornamental embellishment.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
A parchment sheet, written on both sides, measuring about 74.5 cm × 50.8 cm. Liturgical text in Latin in a large Gothic script, within a yellow frame outlined in red. Presence of 9 initials decorated in gold leaf and in color, enriched with gold leaf dotting; one initial contains an internal design depicting a fruit tree. Some abrasions, undulations, and signs of wear. In ancient manuscripts, with a history spanning centuries, some imperfections may be present, not always detectable in the description. Pages: 1.

Full title and author
Leaf from a liturgical choral manuscript containing psalm texts.
Italy [1640].
Dear all

Context
The text includes the famous verse “Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus: quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”, drawn from the Psalms of the Vulgate and frequently used in the liturgy of praise. The monumental scale of the writing and the decorative richness of the initials indicate a choral use, probably in a monastic or capitular milieu. The specimen testifies to the persistence of the liturgical manuscript as a functional and symbolic object in seventeenth-century Italy, where visual magnificence remained an integral part of the devotional experience.

Printing history and circulation
Manuscript on parchment, Northern Italy, ca. 1640. Handmade production intended for a large-format antiphonary or gradual; the sheet is most likely the product of the dismemberment of a choral liturgical codex.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Vulgate, Psalms (in particular Psalm 135 [136]). Comparisons with antiphoners and gradual manuscripts from northern Italy of the 17th century preserved in ecclesiastical and cathedral libraries.