Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Vita S. Benedicti
Italy, perhaps in Padua, ca. 1450
MS M.184 inside cover

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Decorated initial P inhabited by displayed Phoenix partly covered by flames issuing from vessel. Personification of Sun in sky; landscape beyond. Pear and foliage ornament. Music is on five-lined staves and with neumes of a square-shaped notation. Text is Creed: PATREM OMNIPOTENTEM, FACTOREM CELI ET TERRAE .... Armorial bookplate of Richard Bennett (1844-1900) pasted to inside front cover. Manuscript folio used as bookseller’s waste likely from a 17c. Italian Antiphonal (pastedown). Condition: Cropped.