A monumental Italian Bible leaf attributed to the circle of the Master of Bagnacavallo from an important and now dispersed thirteenth-century lectern Bible.

c. 473 × 165 mm, cutting ruled faintly in ink and written in a single column (parent leaf with two columns) of forty-one lines in a textualis bookhand, rubrics in red, chapter numbers in red and blue, with alternating red and blue initials throughout, ONE LARGE HISTORIATED INITIAL ‘P’ extending approximately twenty-six lines of text, painted in blue with white ornamental decoration and enclosing a half-length figure of Saint Paul holding a sword, set against a blue ground within the body of the letter, the initial extending downward into a long bar border composed of alternating blue, red, and white segments terminating in foliate ornament. Modern inventory number “143a” in the upper margin of the verso, some fading and abrasion of text, with partial losses especially to the verso, areas of pigment loss and minor staining and cockling, but preserving the historiated initial in good condition with strong color.

This monumental leaf derives from a large-format Bible, probably intended for communal reading in a monastic refectory, where biblical texts were read aloud during meals. The manuscript, now dispersed, belongs to a distinguished group of Italian Bibles associated with the artistic circle of the Master of Bagnacavallo, an anonymous illuminator active in Emilia-Romagna during the third quarter of the thirteenth century and named after a series of Choir Books (MSS 1–3) produced for the Franciscan convent of Bagnacavallo (Biblioteca Comunale G. Taroni). The corpus associated with this master has expanded to include several important Bibles and liturgical manuscripts, including examples preserved in Cesena (Biblioteca
Malatestiana, MSS D.XXI.1–4), Florence (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Conv. Soppr. 582), and Florence (Biblioteca Nazionale, MS Landau Finlay 2).

The historiated initial ‘P’ with Saint Paul reflects the distinctive artistic vocabulary associated with the Master of Bagnacavallo and the closely related Master of Imola. Like many workshop designations of the period, these names likely represent broader artistic circles rather than the hands of single individuals. The figure of Saint Paul, with his narrow face, high rounded forehead, pointed beard articulated with white highlights, and simplified but expressive linear modeling, finds close parallels throughout this group, especially in the Franciscan Bible now in the Getty Museum (MS Ludwig I.II.83.MA 60). The style represented by this leaf reflects a broader artistic language shared across central and northern Italy during the third quarter of the thirteenth century, extending from Emilia-Romagna into Tuscany. Similar formal solutions appear in the work of the Master of Sant’Alessio in Bigiano (formerly the Maestro Geometrico), particularly in Franciscan Choir Books produced in Florence. The prevalence of these related manuscripts within Franciscan contexts suggests that such workshops may have enjoyed especially close connections with the Order, facilitating the movement of artistic models between Bologna, Imola, Florence, and Assisi. The present leaf is therefore an important witness to the dynamic artistic exchanges that shaped Italian illumination around 1270.

The initial illustrates the First Epistle of St Paul to Titus (“Paulus servus dei apostolus autem Christi Ihesu servus … “).

Provenance
(1) Rosenbaum Collection, New York.

(2) Sotheby’s, Catalogue of Single Leaves and Miniatures from Western Illuminated Manuscripts, London, 25 April 1983, lot 20.

(3) Longari Collection, Milan, no. 2.

(4) Jörn Günther, Hamburg, March 2003.

(5) Robert McCarthy Collection, London, MS BM 1413b.

Parent manuscript and sister leaves
Known sister leaves and cuttings include: McCarthy Collection, BM 1613, historiated initial opening the Gospel of John; McCarthy Collection, BM 1611, historiated initial opening the Epistle of James; McCarthy Collection, BM 1853, historiated initial opening the Epistle of Jude; Milan, private collection, inv. 8.1, historiated initial ‘P’ with Saint Peter, opening the First Epistle of Peter (Petrus apostolus Iesu Christi electis...); London, private collection, leaf with historiated initial ‘P’ with Saint Paul, opening the Epistle to the Romans (Paulus servus Iesu Christi vocatus apostolus segregatus in evangelium...); London, Christie’s, Valuable Books and Manuscripts, 11 July 2018, lot 8, historiated initial ‘P’ with Saint Paul, opening the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Paulus apostolus Iesu Christi per voluntatem Dei et Timotheus frater...); Austria, Friedrich G. Zeileis Collection, historiated initial ‘P’ with Saint Paul, opening the Epistle to the Ephesians (Paulus apostolus Christi Iesu per voluntatem...); Milan, private collection, inv. 8.2, historiated initial ‘P’ with Saint Paul, opening the Epistle to the Philippians (Paulus et Timotheus servi Iesu Christi...); London, private collection, leaf with historiated initial ‘P’ with Saint Paul, opening the Epistle to the Colossians (Paulus apostolus Christi Iesu per voluntatem Dei...); Milan, private collection, inv. 8.3, historiated initial ‘P’ with Saint Paul, opening the Epistle to Philemon (Paulus vinctus Iesu Christi...); McCarthy Collection, BM 1405, historiated initial opening the First Epistle to Timothy; McCarthy Collection, BM 1413a, historiated initial opening the Second Epistle to Timothy.

LITERATURE
Published: William M. Voelkle and Roger S. Wieck, The Bernard H. Breslauer Collection of Manuscript Illuminations, New York, 1992, no. 56, p. 156; Milvia Bollati, Una collezione di miniature italiane. Dal Duecento al Cinquecento, Milan, 1994, pp. 13, no. 1; Les Enluminures,
Catalogue 10, Paris, 2001, no. 16, pp. 46-47; Gaudenz Freuler, Italian Miniatures from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries, Milan, 2013, pp. 154-159; Gaudenz Freuler and Georgi Parpulov, The McCarthy Collection, Vol. I, Italian and Byzantine Miniatures, London, 2018, no. 20e, pp. 63-69

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