PRAYERS: THOMAS AQUINAS & OTHERS

MS 1981
MS Short Title PRAYERS: THOMAS AQUINAS & OTHERS
Text
  1. THOMAS AQUINAS AND OTHERS: 27 PRAYERS FOR USE AT MASS
  2. PRAYER: O SACRO SANCTISSIMO OCHINO DE PIETA
  3. PORTOLAN MAP OF THE ADRIATIC COAST OF APULIA IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPOLI FROM RINALDO SOUTH AS FAR AS PORT BADISCO, INCLUDING OTRANTO AND INLAND TOWNS WITH LITTLE HILLS
Description MS in Latin and Italian (text 2-3) on vellum, Napoli, Italy, 1st half of 16th c., late 15th c. (text 3), 76 ff. (complete), 14x10 cm, single column, (9x6 cm), 14 lines in a skilful regular Beneventan minuscule by a nun, and in Italian cursive script (texts 2-3), 1-line capitals alternately blue and gold with penwork in red and purple, 30 large decorated initials, 3 3-line and the others 2-line, alternately raised burnished gold with full-length purple penwork or dark blue with full-length red penwork, very large, 5-line illuminated initial on opening page in leafy design in raised burnished gold outlined in red enclosing formal floral pattern in greens with yellow on a blue panel ground with white tracery and full-length bar extending into upper and lower margins into sprays of coloured and burnished gold flowers.
Binding Napoli, Italy, 16th c., limp vellum, sewn on 3 bands, formed of a late 15th c. portolan map, 23x17 cm (text 3). Barking, Essex, 1995, green gilt quarter morocco folding case, by Aquarius.
Provenance 1. Benedictine monastery of Santa Patrizia, Napoli (16th c. -); 2. Private collector, Connecticut (-1994); 3. Sotheby's 5. 12.1994:88; 4. Deaccessioned to Beinecke library.
Commentary The Beneventan minuscule that origines nearly 1400 years ago from the Roman cursive, survived the reforms of Charlemagne in the 9th c., and unlike most of the other pre-Carolingian scripts of Europe, was preserved in South Italy and Dalmatia right into the 16th c. In the 15th c. it was nearly extinct. From the 16th c. there are only 8 examples known, all from Napoli. The other 7 codices are in the following public collections: 1 at New York: Columbia University, 3 at the Vatican, 1 in Montevergine, and 2 in Napoli.
Place of origin Naples, Italy
Dates 1st half of 16c AD