ff. 1-42: Proprium de Tempore;  

f. 1, [rubric lacking], incipit, “Conditor alme siderum …” Advent; initial “C,” Prophet holding a book; 

f. 4, In nativitate domini, incipit, “Veni redemptor …”; (Christmas); initial “V,” Nativity; 

f. 7v, In epiphania ad vespers, Epiphany; initial “H,” Adoration of the Magi; 

f. 16v, In quadragesima (first Sunday in Lent); 

f. 20, Dominica in passione (Passion Sunday); 

f. 24v, Octave of Easter, initial “A,” Resurrection; 

f. 29, In ascensione … ad vesperas, Ascension, initial E,” Ascension; 

f. 31 [Pentecost, rubric lacking, but hymns for matins and lauds, both beginning with historiated initials], incipit, “Beate nobis gaudia …”, initial “B,” Ascension;  

f. 34, Veni creator spiritus mentes …, initial “V, Pentecost [see Palladino, 35b, recently reinserted in volume]; 

f. 37, In festo corporis christi, Trinity Sunday, initial “P” Altar table; 

f. 41, In festo dedicationis ecclesie, Dedication of a Church; 

f. 45v, Translation of Thomas Aquinas (28 January), initial “S,” St. Thomas Aquinas; 

[f. 49, Virgin and Child, still missing, see Palladino, 35c] ; 

f. 52v, Thomas Aquinas (7 March), initial “E”; 

f. 55, Peter martyr (29 April), initial, “M”; 

f. 62, John the Baptist (24 June), initial “U” (partially rubbed); 

f. 66v, Peter and Paul (29 June), initial “A”; 

f. 71v, In festo marie Magdalena, Mary Magdalene (22 July), initial, “L”; 

f. 75v, Dominic (5 August), initial “G,” Glorification of Dominic [formerly missing from the Hymnal, catalogued separately Paladino, no. 35d]; 

f. 78, Augustine, initial “M”; 

f. 80v, Michael Archangel (29 September), initial “T”;  

f. 83v, All Saints (1 November), initial “I,” Christ blessing the Apostles; 

f. 85v, St. Catharine of Alexandria, initial “K”; 

ff. 88v-110v: Commune Sanctorum; 

[Probably a contemporary or near-contemporary additions; pen decoration changes at this point, with initials in a style found in Northeastern Italy];  

f. 110v, St. Catharine of Siena, incipit, “Nec tue virgo,” initial “H,” underdrawing; 

Later (sixteenth-century?) additions, include:  f. 114, Vincent; f. 116, Transfiguration; f. 121, incipit, “Vente iocunda …”; ending with a rubric for the feast of Antoninus (with no text following), ending imperfectly. 

All but one of the miniatures in this exuberantly decorated hymnal may be attributed to the so-called Master of 1446, an anonymous Bolognese illuminator erroneously named after a 1446 book of statutes for the Hospital of Santa Maria del Baraccano in Bologna (Archivio di Stato, cod. min. Baraccano n.1bis). A second artist was responsible for the initial and borders on f. 31. These reflect the style of the so-called Master of the Servi Missal, a Bolognese illuminator active in the third decade of the fifteenth century.  

The Master of 1446 was described in 1987 by Massimo Medica as a representative of a Late Gothic tendency in Bolognese manuscript illumination during the second quarter of the fifteenth century whose work was still rooted in the style of Niccolò di Giacomo and his followers, but also receptive to the example of contemporary painters such as Giovanni da Modena and Michele di Matteo. The large, broadly rendered and brilliantly colored illuminations that distinguish the decoration of the present hymnal are quintessential examples of his production. Typical of the artist are the massive, broadly rendered figural types and incisive, calligraphic approach, defined by the use of heavy dark outlines to articulate form as well as to describe facial features.  These elements and the foliate borders interspersed with geometric forms are identical to those in a leaf from the Statutes of the Bolognese Guild of Leather Workers in the Cini Collection, Venice (2119) (Medica 1992, p. 24; exh. cat. Rocca Boncompagni 1999, pp. 162-163).  Given the presence of the coat-of-arms of Pope Eugene IV in the lower border, the Cini page was dated by Giordana Mariani Canova (1978, p. 29) to his pontificate, between 1431 and 1447.  A more precise date was proposed by Medica, who, based on the type of decorative border, placed this work within the artist’s early production, during the 1440s.   

Recent research narrows the Lehman Hymnal’s date of production down to c. 1450.  A leaf with the Resurrection in an initial ‘R’ (Private Collection) and a leaf with the Ascension in the Cini Collection in Venice that both come from the same Gradual illuminated by the Master of 1446 serve as points of reference for this dating (Freuler 2004). Considering the identical layout and dimensions, it is conceivable that the dismembered Gradual from which these sister leaves come belonged to the same series of Choir Books as the Lehman Hymnal.  If this hypothesis is correct, then the Gradual would have been produced slightly earlier than the Lehman Hymnal, because the growing influence of Belbello da Pavia on the Master of 1446 does not yet manifest itself so clearly in the Gradual.  

LITERATURE 

Giordana Mariani Canova, Miniature dell’Italia settentrionale nella fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice 1978, p. 29.  

Seymour De Ricci and William J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 3 vols., New York 1935-1940, vol. 2, p. 1709, A.37. 

Gaudenz Freuler,“Studi recenti sulla miniatura medievale: Emilia, Veneto e Toscana. Appunti su una mostra Americana (Parte II),” in Arte Cristiana 822, May-June 2004, p. 157ff. (Review of Palladino 2003).  

Exh. cat. Bologna.  Il tramonto del medioevo a Bologna. Il cantiere di San Petronio, Bologna 1987, p. 229 (entry by Massimo Medica);   

Exh. cat. Rocca Boncompagni.  Haec sunt Statuta: Le corporazioni medievali nelle miniaure bolognesi, Massimo Medica (ed.), Modena, 1999, pp. 162-163.  

Massimo Medica. “Aggiunte al Maestro del Messale Orsini e ad altri miniatori bolognesi tardogotici,” Arte a Bologna 2 (1992), pp. 22-26. 

Pia Palladino.  Treasures of a Lost Art.  Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, exh. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003, pp. 63-67, cat. 35 a-d;  

IIM-89189