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Initial "H" with St. Martin and the Beggar (Cutting from an Antiphonary)

Attributed to: Memmo di Filippuccio
Italian (Siena?)
Medieval (Gothic)
early 14th century
Place of Manufacture: Europe, possibly Siena, Italy, Tuscany

Medium/Technique Tempera, ink and gold on parchment
Dimensions Overall: 17.6 x 18.2 cm (6 15/16 x 7 3/16 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Mrs. Edward Jackson Holmes
Accession Number41.908
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope

DescriptionA cutting from an antiphonary (or a book containing the sung portions of the Divine Office), an historiated letter "H," with St. Martin giving his cloak to the beggar, on the recto. The illumination depicts the first nocturn of Matins for the office of St. Martin of Tours (11 November): recto: [R.] H[ic est Martinus…]…; verso: [A. Martinus adhuc catechumenus] me veste contexit/ [A.] Sanctae trinitatis fidem [Mar]tinus confessus….

A cutting with 3 partial staves on verso with text in Latin. Bounding and writing lines in blind. Heightened square neumes on a four-line staff (no clef extant). Written in a Rotunda script in black ink.

ProvenanceBy 1938, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Jackson Holmes [see note 1]; 1941, gift of Mrs. Edward Jackson Holmes. (Accession date: December 11, 1941)

NOTES:
[1] In 1938 and again in 1940-41, this book was on loan to the MFA from Mr. and Mrs. Edward Jackson Holmes.