Leaf Portable Antiphonal (1 results)

No Binding. Condition: Fine. Leaf from a portable Antiphonal, with the Annunciation to the Virgin in a large historiated initial. [Iberian peninsula (probably Spain), second half 12th Century], in Latin, illustrated manuscript on vellum. A single leaf, 320 by 216mm, recovered from reuse on the binding of an account book, with a near-half-page initial 'D' (opening Psalm 39: "Dixi custodiam uias .") framed with penwork and coloured with yellow wash, enclosing a winged angel appearing to the Virgin holding a banderole with "Ave Marie" on it, both with rosy red-dotted cheeks and in pale green robes, all on red and dark blue grounds, marginal penwork foliage sprays emerging from the initial. Initials in red with foliate infill, some capitals infilled with yellow wash, others infilled in red, red rubrics, text in single column of 20 lines of a fine Iberian Romanesque hand, with music in neumes arranged around a clef-line, an added line at head most probably of the seventeenth century, faded. Examples of Iberian manuscripts of this age are extremely rare on the market. For comparable leaves see Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, Volume II: Spanish, English, Flemish and Central European Miniatures, 2019, nos. 1-3.