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Making the Renaissance Manuscript

Title

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

Description

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.

Creator

Illuminator: Master B.F.

Date

ca. 1500

Format

Illuminated manuscript cuttings on parchment

Identifier

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

Coverage

Lombardy, Italy

Tags

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Citation

Illuminator: Master B.F., “Decorated initial cuttings from the Santi Angelo e Niccolò at Villanova Sillaro choir books,” Making the Renaissance Manuscript, accessed December 22, 2024, http://makingrenmanuscripts.exhibits.library.upenn.edu/items/show/22.

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