Incunable Finely Illuminated - Painted on parchment - 1470

The song of the saint, that speaks to us from the silence of centuries
A rare and fascinating fragment of the Life of Saint Margaret in Italian vernacular, this illuminated manuscript preserves the echo of private devotion from the Quattrocento and the immediacy of late medieval Gothic writing. The folio, originally part of a larger codex, offers a valuable example of hagiographic text intended for personal reading, embellished with red initials and unexpectedly featuring a seventeenth-century miniature added later. Its size, the thin parchment, and the numbering of the pages reveal the material history of a still very much alive book, capable of conveying the popular voice of female sainthood in the late Middle Ages.
Market value
Miniature hagiographic fragments in 15th-century Italian vernacular show a decent market demand, especially when they retain an entire homogeneous fascicle, as in this case. Prices for comparable units range between 1,800 and 2,000 euros, with higher values when original decorations or later interventions that document the manuscript's material history survive. The small size and good readability of the text contribute to a medium-high valuation for this type.

Physical description and condition
Miniature manuscript on parchment, in Italian vernacular, datable to the second half of the 15th century. Text in Gothic script on a single column of 13 lines. Composed of Pp.(6); 24 consecutive pages (numbered 29–40), forming a single fascicle; (6). Decoration includes 6 initial capital letters in red ink and a miniature with the portrait of the saint, added at the beginning of the booklet. Well-preserved parchment, with normal signs of use and good readability of the script.

Full title and author
Life of Saint Margaret, illuminated manuscript on parchment in Italian vernacular.
Anonymous copyist, Italy, second half of the 15th century.

Context and Significance
The text belongs to the late medieval hagiographic tradition dedicated to the figure of Saint Margaret of Antioch, one of the most beloved martyr saints in popular devotion between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The transmission in the vernacular attests to its intended audience: laypeople and women, often associated with confraternities or private spiritual settings at home. The compact booklet structure, regular Gothic script, and the presence of rubricated initial capitals indicate a semi-professional production, perhaps meant for a small personal devotional book. The seventeenth-century miniature, added at a later time, reveals a second life for the object, reinterpreted as an affective or iconographic relic. The fragment offers a rare glimpse into the circulation of short Italian hagiographic texts, often fragmented or lost.

Biography of the Author
Anonymous scribe active in Italy in the second half of the 15th century. The use of the vernacular, combined with the presence of rubrics and initials in red, suggests a background in a conventual or para-monastic setting, with skills in reproducing devotional texts intended for private reading and domestic meditation.

Printing history and circulation
The Life of Saint Margaret was widely disseminated in manuscript form in Italy between the 14th and 15th centuries, often in abbreviated versions intended for small personal booklets. With the advent of printing, many hagiographic versions were included in popular collections, but the manuscript witnesses in the vernacular remained in use mainly in rural and female communities. Independent fascicles like the present one represent a rare type, surviving incidentally due to the dismemberment of larger devotional codices.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Claudio Leonardi, Hagiography and Cult of Saints in Medieval Italy, Florence.
Giulia Barone, Medieval Holiness Between Public and Private, Rome.
M. T. Dolcini, The hagiographic tradition in Italian vernacular, Milan.
De Hamel, C., A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, London.
Wieck, R., Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art, New York.