Leaf from a Gradual: Historiated Initial S[alve Sancta Parens] with Birth of the Virgin (recto) and Music (verso)

About this artwork

This beautiful leaf is dominated by a large historiated S from which sprays of foliage inhabited by a putto, a rabbit, and a stork extend into the left margin. A scene representing the birth of the Virgin is within the double curve of the S. Saint Anne, the Virgin’s mother, occupies the birthing bed in the upper scene. Below, the infant Mary has been bathed and wrapped in swaddling clothes. In manuscript missals and their musical counterparts, the gradual, votive masses are generally assigned on...