Ɵ Passional, with an animal initial, manuscript in Latin, on parchment [Southern Italy, c. 1100]

Ɵ Leaf from a vast Passional, with a large and finely decorated animal initial, manuscript in Latin, written in Beneventan minuscule on parchment[Southern Italy (probably Abruzzo), c. 1100] Single enormous leaf, with double columns of 37 lines of a fine and regular Beneventan minuscule (with parts of the readings for the lives of SS. Praxedes and Symphorosa and her seven sons, and the Passion of St. Apollinaris), capitals touched in bright red, red rubrics in same script, one line of ornamental capitals in elaborate penwork with baubles suspended in the bodies of the letters and in the space between the letters, these touched in red and yellow, small red foliage initial with biting beast masks (this partly obscured by cockling), one large initial on reverse in green, red, yellow and pale blue geometric compartments and a circle with interlace foot an animal mask, another larger initial on obverse formed of yellow and red bands densely entwined in geometric knot at foot, terminating in acanthus leaves and two beast heads with gaping maws, another teal green beast entwined with geometric interlace at foot and a pale blue beast within the initial itself twisted around and biting its own body, recovered from a binding and hence with folds, tiny holes, scuffs and cockling overall, notably scuffed and darkened on reverse with damage to text and initial there, overall fair and presentable condition, 560 by 370mm.; in cloth-covered card binding Provenance: 1. Probably from a house dependent on Montecassino, perhaps in Abruzzo. Brown notes that the leaf was reused at the close of the Middle Ages as a wrapper on an account book: it has sixteenth-century scrawls on extremities of outer side: "Assoluzioni 1548 ..." and "1576", and reports the description of the owner from 1992 that this account book was from a Benedictine convent in Penne, Abruzzo.2. Paolo Francesco d'Aloisio of Herisau, Switzerland.2. Christie's, 2 June 1999, lot 21.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 2785, acquired in Christie's. Script and decoration:The script here is a proud and confident example of Beneventan minuscule, from a parent manuscript of monumental proportions. However, what sets this leaf apart from most of its peers is the size of the codex and quality of the animal initial. It is larger than any other manuscript in Lowe's survey, with the single exception of Vatican Library, Vat. lat.4222 (p. 288). The initial stands alongside the finest decorated Beneventan manuscripts to survive, with the long and thin coloured bars of acanthus leaves inhabited with strange creatures coloured with pale washes distinctive to the mature style of manuscript production there (cf. Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages: Beneventan Script, 1990, nos. 8, a Missal from late eleventh-century Puglia, later Christie's, Schøyen sale, 10 July 2019, lot 421, with sister leaves recorded there and in G. Freuler, The McCarthy Collection: Italian and Byzantine Miniatures, 2018, no. 1). Published: V. Brown, 'A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (III)', Mediaeval Studies, LVI, 1994, p. 313.F. Bianchi & A. Magi Spinetti, Bibliografia dei manoscritti in scrittura Beneventana, 1995, III:28 & 187.