Decorated initial cuttings from the Santi Angelo e Niccolò at Villanova Sillaro choir books

Decorated initial cuttings from the Santi Angelo e Niccolò at Villanova Sillaro choir books

These splendid initials, which form part of a larger set of cuttings held at the Free Library, demonstrate the creativity and delicacy that could be applied to aspects of book illustration sometimes considered secondary to larger narrative miniatures. The Milanese artist to whom these can be attributed, the so-called Master B.F. (act. ca. 1490–1545) is so named after a number of works he signed with these initials, including an historiated initial of King David, also at the Free Library. The three historiated initials in Philadelphia, these sets of initials, and several more decorated letters, all in the Free Library, were associated with numerous other fragments from a dismembered set of twenty choir books from the Olivetan monastery of Santi Angelo e Niccolò at Villanova Sillaro, near Lodi.

Illuminator: Master B.F.

ca. 1500

Illuminated manuscript cuttings on parchment

The Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E M 76:52 and Lewis E M 76:54

Lombardy, Italy