Ɵ Sermons on the Annunciation of the Virgin, manuscript in Latin on parchment [Italy, 12th century]

Ɵ Sermons on the Annunciation of the Virgin attributed to Augustine, with a large decorated initial, manuscript in Latin on parchment[Italy, mid-twelfth century] Single leaf, with a large initial 'S' (opening "Scientes fratres dilecctissimi ...") in vivid blue bands fishtailed at each terminal, enclosing a blue sprig of foliage with green, red and white tendrils and a large white stylised flower, all set on pale yellow ground in imitation of gold, first line of text in ornamental capitals, single red rubric, double column of 47 lines in a professional early gothic bookhand, without biting curves, catchwords sloping down at lower corner (partly trimmed away), recovered from a binding and hence with numerous later penwork additions of devotional material, spots, stains, a few small holes and a large fold horizontally across midpoint, overall in fair and presentable condition, 430 by 300mm.; in cloth-covered card binding, with Bernard Rosenthal's cataloguing Provenance: 1. Aldo Olschki (1893-1963), of Florence, publisher and antiquarian bookseller, son of the grand bookseller Leo Olschki (1861-1940). 2. Bernard Rosenthal (1920-2017), of San Francisco, California, his I/75, acquired 1959.3. Quaritch cat. 1147, Bookhands of the Middle Ages V, 1991, no. 91.4. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 656, acquired from Quaritch in June 1990. Text and decoration:The text here was based on Augustine's sermon 369, and in the Middle Ages was attributed to him as well as Ildefonsus, Jerome and Maximus of Turin. It is most probably the work of an anonymous early medieval author (see R. Grégoire, Homéliaires liturgiques médiévaux, 1980, p. 179, no. 66).The fleshy acanthus leaves of the initial here, painted in broad brushstrokes in a vivid palette, and using a yellow wash ground to imitate burnished gold, are of interest. They look northwards to Bible decoration in France (cf. the Bible of St. Mary de Parc: reproduced in W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination, 1982, fig. 90) and forwards to Italian decoration of the thirteenth century, rather than to the white-vine initials that dominated Italian book arts of the twelfth century.