Quite a lovely illuminated Gradual.
Near the bottom of this page are links to ten relatively plain folios, with a single illuminated initial on each.
And then there are links to nine folios with fine miniatures and especially handsome illuminated borders.
(You can also see nearly all the other folios of this manuscript by looking here.)
Here is one leaf from the Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry -- Body of St Catherine, carried to Mt. Sinai. (You can see a zoom version of this leaf by choosing the bottom-most thumbnail here.)
I hope to add more to this entry over the next few days.
The Getty Museum has a lovely page on decorated letters as they appear in illuminated manuscripts. The page itself has seven examples. To me, the first one and the last two are the most interesting and attractive.
Take a look at the very first one -- bet you'll agree.
It's wonderful how sometimes a page of mere handwriting can be beautiful in and of itself. Some examples can be found in this manuscript of letters from Cicero (so I gather), made in Italy in the early 1400s.
I especially liked the right-hand side of ff. 155v-156. Here I am using my usual standards of "has a (desirable) physical impact on me" and "makes me feel peaceful" in saying that I find it beautiful.
The Morgan Library owns the Hours of Infante Don Alfonso of Castile, 1465-1480, illuminated in Spain. Here is the opening page -- f. 1v.
Images of the Pentecost are among my favorites. Here are 91 depictions of that event from the illuminated manuscripts at the Morgan Library, NYC. (Single-page list)
I love the borders of this Book of Hours, with all their flowers, birds, and other fauna --
February, ff. 2v-3r
December, ff. 12v-13r
Pentecost, ff. 22v-23r
Visitation, ff. 62v-63r
Flight into Egypt, ff. 108v-109r
St Francis; St Jerome, ff. 204v-205r
Here are eight handsome pages from a 16th-century Gradual. They are extremely well done, imo.
The pages --
i. Christ among the disciples, with illustionistic floral/vegetal border
xvii. Stoning of St. Stephen
xliiii v. Male saints
ci v. Confessorsciii. Ecclesiastical procession (personal favorite)
clxxiiii v. Anne and Joachim at the Temple
cxxx v. Monk and Abbots
cxxxvi. Female saints
At the Brown University site, there is a very fine study of an illuminated Italian antiphonal. You can see all eighteen leaves (36 sides) that survive from the original, but there is much else here besides.
Nativity (from an Antiphonary)
ca. 1460, by Francesco di Giorgio Martini
Museo del Duomo
Chiusi, Italy
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