AA. VV. - Illuminated Manuscript on Parchment - 1800

Great bifolio suspended between two centuries: the renewed liturgy inspired by the Middle Ages
This wide bifolio on parchment (537x732 mm), created in the nineteenth century, belongs to the neomedieval tradition that reinterprets and revisits the great monastic antiphonaries. A work of an ecclesiastical scriptorium or a workshop dedicated to the revival of sacred arts, the bifolio features the Office of Saint Andrew with square notation on a red Tetragramma, orderly rubrics, and a sumptuous figurative initial. Its size, calligraphic quality, and typically 'choir-like' layout echo late Gothic and Renaissance models, while the painting technique, chromatic saturation, and expressive gestures fully reveal its origin. It is a devotional and celebratory artifact, created to evoke the Middle Ages, at a time when liturgy rediscovered its material and musical history.
Market value
A complete bifolio of this quality and size (537x732 mm), featuring a large miniature at the full initial and well-preserved liturgical musical text, falls within the mid-high range of the market for neomedieval manuscripts on parchment. Indicative values: 1,300–1,450 euros for illuminated bifolia; particularly refined examples can reach or exceed 2,000 euros. This specimen, with the image of Saint Andrew and intact notation, belongs to the upper tier.

Physical description and condition
Bifolio on thick parchment, regular Gothic script in black ink, rubrics in red, red tetragram, square neumes. Large illuminated initial of Saint Andrew in bright pigments and gold leaf gilding. Normal waviness of the parchment, some signs of use and folds at the edges. In ancient manuscripts, with a multi-century history, some imperfections may be present that are not always noted in the description.

Full title and author
Neomedieval liturgical bifolio, created by an ecclesiastical or calligraphic workshop between the 19th and early 20th century.

Context and Significance
The bifolio belongs to the nineteenth-century season, during which Catholic liturgy revives medieval aesthetics: restored Gregorian chant, monumentalized liturgical codices, and new parchment productions intended for monastic choirs or celebratory commissions. The miniature of Saint Andrew combines Gothic motifs—vegetal borders, architectural framing—with a more illustrative painting style, featuring intense chromatic accents and soft modeling. The musical notation is functional for choral use, but the regularity of the signs and the quality of the ductus indicate a specialized production rather than amateur craftsmanship. The bifolio exemplifies the phenomenon of the 'renaissance of the manuscript' in modern times, where parchment becomes a noble support for a past perceived as an identity matrix.

Biography of the Author
Most of the neo-Gothic bifolia on parchment come from Benedictine monasteries, Franciscan institutes, parish workshops of sacred art, or professional artists dedicated to historicist reproduction.

Printing history and circulation
Since it is not a printed work, there is no edition size or editorial tradition. The bifolio most likely belongs to an antifonary composed of multiple fascicles mimicking the great medieval codices. It was produced as a single unit, not serially.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Musical paleography (Solesmes)
Christopher de Hamel, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts.
Michelle Brown, Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts.
M. Huglo, The Books of Liturgical Chant.
Studies on the neo-Gothic revival and 19th-century sacred art.