CENTRAL ITALIAN ILLUMINATOR
Cutting with a decorated initial ‘Q’ from a Moralia in Job, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy, Rome? c. 1100–1125]

A rare and striking witness to the grandeur of Romanesque manuscript production in the early Geometrical style.

174 × 126 mm. Single cutting written in a fine Caroline minuscule, with the rubric and incipit rendered in a formal rustic capital script in red ink, decorated initial ‘Q’ in center of cutting integrating the first words of the text (QUID MIRUM) within body, initial executed in vivid palette of red, yellow, and dark blue-green, infilled with stylized foliate and interlace motifs. The parchment is generally well-preserved, with some surface abrasion and minor smudging, particularly at the lower and right margins, with some loss to text, cropping at the top and bottom edges has slightly truncated parts of the rubric and final line, else in good condition.

Forming the incipit Quid mirum si aeterna dei sapientia (What wonder the eternal wisdom of God) of Book 19 of Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job, this monumental letter exemplifies the early Geometrical style, with yellow staves subdividing its form into compartments densely filled with interlaced and foliate ornament in rich shades of blue and red. The same palette animates the surrounding foliage, heightening the visual unity of the design. Closely related decorative schemes appear in early twelfth-century Central Italian manuscripts, such as an initial ‘H’ in Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Pluteo 15.10, fol. 23v, situating this work within the artistic milieu of the great Benedictine centers and the broader tradition of Atlantic Bible illumination. The Moralia in Job, Gregory’s monumental thirty-five libri exegesis on the Book of Job, was a foundational monastic text, prized for its layered interpretation of Scripture across literal, allegorical, and moral registers. This initial, cut from what was clearly a lavish and meticulously crafted volume, offers a rare and compelling witness to the grandeur of Romanesque manuscript production in the early twelfth century.

Provenance
(1) Cincinnati, Cincinnati Museum Center, The Cornelius J. Hauck Collection, 2006.

(2) New York, Christie’s, The History of the Book: The Cornelius J. Hauck Collection from the
Cincinnati Museum Center (sale 1769), 27 June 2006, lot 86

(3) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 1598.

Parent manuscript and sister leaves
Presently unidentified.

LITERATURE
New York, Christie’s, The History of the Book: The Cornelius J Hauck Collection from the Cincinnati Museum Center (sale 1769), 27 June 2006, lot 86; Gaudenz Freuler with Georgi Parpulov, The McCarthy Collection: Italian and Byzantine Miniatures. London, 2018, no. 6.

We are grateful to Gaudenz Freuler for permission to quote from his catalogue for this entry, and we thank Senior Consultant Sandra Hindman and Peter Bovenmyer for their assistance in preparing this sale.

The Robert McCarthy Collection

This lot is located in Chicago.

CENTRAL ITALIAN ILLUMINATORCutting with a decorated initial ‘Q’ from a Moralia in Job, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy, Rome? c. 1100–1125]

CENTRAL ITALIAN ILLUMINATOR
Cutting with a decorated initial ‘Q’ from a Moralia in Job, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy, Rome? c. 1100–1125]