Large colorful Romanesque leaf with knotted tendrils, interlaced vine scrolls, and dragon terminal.
 
266.7 × 82.6 mm. Initial ‘P’, with a dense vegetal design of stylized foliate infill of tendrils in white, blue, and olive green set against a burnished gold ground, with the right bowl decorated by radiating red and white fan motifs, vertical stem and elongated descender are framed in bands of blue and ochre, enclosing red and white interlace ornament, while the tail curves sinuously into a fantastical beast form, terminating in delicate red penwork arabesques. Trimmed closely to the letterform, the cutting shows areas of pigment loss and abrasion, particularly in the lower register, yet remains visually arresting and structurally stable.
 
This richly ornamented initial ‘P’, likely excised from a high-quality twelfth-century manuscript, exemplifies the sophistication of Romanesque illumination in central Italy. Set against a striking ground of blue, beige, and petrol-blue, the letter is outlined by curling orange tendrils that form intricate knots at the upper edge. Its segmented body is filled with alternating patterns in vibrant hues, while a green dragon forms the lower extension, biting into the terminal in a dynamic flourish. Within the letter, interlaced vine stems in olive, blue, and beige further enrich the design, and red contours framing the field conclude in delicate arabesques. Closely related in style and iconography to a decorated ‘P’ in the celebrated Passionary (Passionario F) of the Biblioteca Capitolare in Lucca—produced for the Cathedral in the third quarter of the twelfth century—this initial likely shares both provenance and artistic lineage. It offers not only a superb example of Romanesque manuscript art but also a rare opportunity to acquire a fragment associated with one of the great Tuscan scriptoria of the period.
 
Provenance
(1) Akron, Ohio, Bruce Ferrini.
 
(2) Paris, Les Enluminures, 1998.
 
(3) Robert McCarthy, London, MS BM 1164.
 
Parent manuscript and sister leaves
Presently unidentified.
 
LITERATURE
Published: Gaudenz Freuler with Georgi Parpulov, The McCarthy Collection: Italian and Byzantine Miniatures London, London, 2018, no. 9; Related literature: Annamaria Calderoni Masetti, “Miniatura,” in La Biblioteca Capitolare di Lucca, ed. Annamaria Calderoni Masetti, Luciano Bellosi, and Eugenio Massa, Milan, 1979, 63–91.
 
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