Bishop Saint (Boniface) from the lavish Monza Legendary, an early and sumptuous cycle of saints’ lives.

72 mm × 62 mm, single cutting from an illuminated Legendary, verso preserving on the reverse portions of seven lines written in a Gothic bookhand in dark brown ink with traces of red rubrication, ONE MINIATURE occupying nearly the full height of the cutting, partially framed by architectural motifs in green and cream tones against a rich blue ground with white filigree ornament, enclosing a standing figure of Saint Boniface depicted as a bishop wearing a mitre and red mantle over green robes. Reverse heavily abraded with loss of most text from previous mounting, minor rubbing and discoloration to miniature, else in good condition with figure and pigments well preserved.

The recto contains the text “post hac iubente [angelus ad civ]itatem suam rediit” from the conclusion of the Life of Saint Erasmus (De Sancto Erasmo, BHL 2585), immediately preceding the Life of Saint Boniface The verso opens with the beginning of the Life of Saint Boniface ([Bonifatius…]).

The present cutting belongs to an important group of fragments from a now-dismembered late thirteenth-century illustrated Legendary, once thought to derive from a manuscript of Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea (Golden Legend). Subsequent study has shown that the manuscript combined texts from the Legenda aurea with material drawn from the earlier Liber epilogorum in gesta sanctorum by the Dominican friar Bartholomew of Trent, composed between 1244 and c. 1255, and an important source for Jacobus’s later compilation. The identification of the text on the reverse of the present cutting (“post hac iubente [angelo ad civ]itatem suam rediit”) from the conclusion of the Life of Saint Erasmus (De Sancto Erasmo, BdT 188,5), immediately preceding the Life of Saint Boniface (“De duobus sanctis Bonifacii”), confirms its place within this expanded collection of saints’ lives.

The parent manuscript was lavishly illustrated with numerous historiated initials and miniatures accompanying individual saints. Characteristic of the manuscript’s cycle, the present miniature presents the saint frontally with simplified forms, strong outlines, and expressive gestures. The sturdy figure, rounded facial features, low-set ears, and bright palette reflect the traditions of late Romanesque Lombard illumination. The manuscript was likely produced in northern Italy, probably Lombardy, c. 1285–1290. Earlier attributed to a Spanish illuminator associated with the Beatus of San Andrés de Arroyo, the group was reassigned by Valagussa to a Lombard artist after recognizing the same hand in the historiated initials of an Antiphonary now in the Biblioteka Jagiellońska (MS Rps. Akc. 20/1951). The Lombard origin of this Choir Book had already been noted by Ameisenowa, who identified its distinctive local saints, including Saint Zeno, Saint Ambrose, and especially Saint Theodelinda, the Lombard queen venerated at Monza. This evidence suggests that the Antiphonary was produced for a church in or near Monza and led Valagussa to associate the illuminator of the Legendary fragments with this northern Italian artistic milieu.

Provenance    
(1) Formerly in the Alana Collection, on deposit at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven.

(2) Christie’s, London, 6 July 2011, lot 3.

(3) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 2330r

Parent manuscript and sister leaves
Identified sister leaves include: formerly Strasbourg, Robert Forrer Collection (1902), Saint Thomas the Apostle (LA 5); bm 1276, The Nativity (LA 4); La Spezia, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia, inv. 523, The Massacre of the Innocents (De Innocentibus, LA 10); bm 342, St. Thomas of Canterbury (LA 11); bm 1008, St. Sylvester (LA 12); Providence, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, 2010.19.1 (formerly Paris, Les Enluminures), The Baptism of Christ (De Epiphania Domini, LA 14); Milan, private collection, inv. 40, The Miracle of the Loaves (Fourth Miracle of Epiphany, LA 14); London, Sotheby’s, 8 December 1975, St. Paul the Hermit (?) (LA 15); bm 1985, St. Hilary of Poitiers (LA 17); formerly Strasbourg, Robert Forrer Collection (1902), St. Macarius (LA 18); bm 1274, St. Basilius (LA 26); formerly Paris, Les Enluminures,
The Baptism of St Paul (De conversione sancti Pauli apostoli, LA 28); Kraków, Biblioteka
Jagiellońska, MS Rps. Akc. 20/1951, f. 6v, St. Ignatius of Antioch (?) (LA 36); formerly London, Maggs Bros., Bulletin 8 (1974), St. Agatha (LA 39) and St Peter in Cathedra (LA 44); London, Sotheby’s, 8 December 1975, St. Benedict and Two Monks (LA 49); bm 0078, Christ Entering Jerusalem (LA 53); Amsterdam, Mensing, Mettler sale, 22 November 1929, lot 53, The Mocking of Christ and The Crucifixion (LA 53); bm 2484, Christ’s Descent into Limbo (LA 54); bm 0077, St. Mary of Egypt (LA 56); Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS Rps. Akc. 20/1951, antefolium, Pentecost (LA 73); bm 1012, Saints John and Paul (LA 87); Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS Rps. Akc. 20/1951, f. 1, St. Peter (LA 89); Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, Perg. sciolte A 54, St Paul (LA 90); bm 1711, St. Felicity and Her Seven Sons (LA 91); Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS Rps. Akc. 20/1951, f. 119v, St. Christina (LA 98); Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS Rps. Akc. 20/1951, f. 187, The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (LA 101); Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS Rps. Akc. 20/1951, f. 105v, St. Dominic (LA 113); bm 1194, St. Sixtus (LA 114); bm 2015, St. Giles (LA 130); bm 1075, St Gorgonius (LA 135); formerly Strasbourg, Robert Forrer Collection (1902), St Protus and his Companions (LA 136) and St John Chrysostom Celebrating Mass (LA 138); Chicago, Sandra Hindman Collection (on deposit at the Art Institute of Chicago), St. Lucy (De Lucia et Geminiano, BdT 300); La Spezia, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia, inv. 522, St. Remigius (LA 147); bm 1206, St Francis with his Companions (LA 149); bm 1986, St. Pelagia (LA 150); bm 1006, St. Chrysanthus (De sancto Crisanto et Daria, LA 157); private collection, St. Clement Celebrating the Holy Office (LA 170); Paris, Musée du Moyen Âge–Musée de Cluny, St. Catherine of Alexandria (LA 172 / BdT 350); bm 1326, St. James Intercisus (LA 174); USA, Alana Collection, Prince Josaphat Imprisoned in his Father’s Castle and St Barlaam Meeting Young Josaphat (LA 180 / BdT 355); Chicago, Sandra Hindman Collection (on deposit at the Art Institute of Chicago), St. Scholastica (BdT 65); bm 2329, St. Barbara (BdT 7); and Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS Rps. Akc. 20/1951, f. 128v, Unidentified Male Saint.

LITERATURE
Published: Robert Forrer, Unedierte Federzeichnungen, Miniaturen und Initialen des Mittelalters, Strasbourg, 1921, pp. 11–12; Zofia Ameisenowa, ed., Rękopisy i pierwodruki iluminowane Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej, Warsaw, 1958, pp. 16–18; François Avril and Marie-Thérèse Gousset, Manuscrits enluminés d’origine italienne, 2: XIIIe siècle, Paris, 1984, p. 27; Les Enluminures, Catalogue 1, Paris: Les Enluminures, 1992, pp. 46–47, nos. 18a–b; Filippo Todini, ed., La pittura umbra dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento, Milan, 1996, pp. 291–94; Giovanni Valagussa, “Santi lombardi di fine Duecento,” in Scritti per l’Istituto Germanico di Storia dell’Arte di Firenze, Florence, 1997, pp. 23–34; Les Enluminures, Catalogue 7, Paris, 1998, pp. 28–29, no. 10; Gaudenz Freuler, Italian Miniatures from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries, Milan, 2013, pp. 426–31; Florian Knothe, Illuminated Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the Collection of the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2015, p. 41, no. 5; Gaudenz Freuler and Georgi Parpulov, The McCarthy Collection, Vol. 1, Italian and Byzantine Miniatures, London, 2018, 50–59, no. 18r.

We are grateful to Peter Kidd 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.