A masterpiece of late Duecento Tuscan illumination from the celebrated choir books of San Francesco al Prato, Pistoia, attributed to the Master of Sant’Alessio in Bigiano.
 
570 × 270 mm, single leaf ruled with vertical bounding lines in plummet, six four-line staves interspersed with single line of liturgical text written in dark brown ink in a formal Gothic rotunda script, versals and responsories in red initials, square notation in black ink, ONE HISTORIATED INITIAL ‘P’, three-quarter page, with Virgin and Saints painted in vibrant tones of blue, red, and gold, halos in burnished gold, initial on a richly decorated blue ground, framed with gold, white, and red foliate ornament, vertical bar extends nearly the full height of the page, terminating in a pointed foliate tail with decorative lobes and penwork embellishments, and populated with red and white rosettes, delicate tendrils, and gold bezants. Some darkening and creasing around the edges, cockling to parchment, and minor pigment loss to the historiated initial, else in fair condition.
 
Text
Containing a portion of the Third Responsory of the First Nocturne for the Feast of the Ascension (Post passionem suam per dies quadraginta...).
 
Illumination
This exceptional, monumental leaf derives from a celebrated series of Choir Books created for San Francesco al Prato in Pistoia, among the most ambitious liturgical commissions undertaken in Tuscany during the late thirteenth century. It preserves a historiated initial ‘P’ with the Ascension, illustrating the Third Responsory of the First Nocturne for the Feast of the Ascension (Post passionem suam per dies quadraginta...), and originally formed f. 202 of MS San Paolo CXIV.87.c. These volumes are recognized among the masterpieces of the so-called Master of Sant’Alessio in Bigiano, formerly known as the Maestro Geometrico or Second Master of Santa Maria Novella, whose refined and expressive style played a central role in the development of manuscript illumination in Florence and central Italy during the final quarter of the thirteenth century.

The artist’s characteristic geometric initials are here transformed into elaborate architectural structures, with segmented letterforms filled with intricate filigree, zigzagging vine ornament, and gold-pellet decoration. Rooted in the Emilian tradition of manuscript illumination yet increasingly responsive to developments in contemporary Florentine painting, the Master of Sant’Alessio in Bigiano moved beyond the formal rigidity of earlier Romanesque models toward a greater sense of movement, expression, and physical presence. Compared with his earlier work in the Choir Books of Santa Maria Novella (c. 1275), the figures in the Pistoia series display a heightened monumentality and emotional immediacy, reflecting the broader artistic transformations associated with Cimabue and late Duecento painting. The present leaf represents the mature achievement of one of the most important illuminators active in Tuscany at the end of the thirteenth century and survives as a remarkable witness to the artistic ambition of the great Franciscan choir book commissions of the period.
 
Provenance
(1) Pistoia, San Francesco al Prato, the convent and church established in the mid-thirteenth century, completed by 1253, and became a significant center of Franciscan devotion and liturgical activity in Tuscany.
 
(2) London, Bernard Shapero Rare Books.
 
(3) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 1266.
                  
Parent manuscript and sister leaves
The present leaf originally belonged to a series of Cistercian Choir Books produced for San Francesco al Prato in Pistoia, now preserved in the Archivio Diocesano, belonging to the second volume (San Paolo CXIV.87.c), containing the Proper of Time from the First Sunday of Lent to Pentecost and the Proper of Saints from the Annunciation (25 March) to the Translation of St Francis (25 May). A sister leaf from the first volume (San Paolo CXIV. 87. b) is currently held in the McCarthy collection.
 
LITERATURE
Published: Roger S. Wieck and William M. Voelkle, The Medieval Calendar: Locating Time in the Middle Ages, New York, 1992, p. 166; Enrica Neri Lusanna, Il Maestro di Sant’Alessio in Bigiano e i Corali di San Francesco al Prato a Pistoia, Florence, 2001; Dr. Jörn Günther, Antiquariat, Catalogue 6: Miniatures and Illuminated Leaves from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, 2002, p. 64; Enrica Neri Lusanna, ed., I Corali della Cattedrale di Pistoia. Libri liturgici miniati dal XII al XVI secolo, Pistoia, 2011, pp. 97–134, 270; Gaudenz Freuler with Georgi Parpulov, The McCarthy Collection, Vol. I, Italian and Byzantine Miniatures,
London, 2018, no. 54.  
 
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