MINIATURIST, Italian
(active 1380s in Siena)

Gradual

c. 1387
Manuscript (1975.1.2476), 268 x 255 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This cutting is from a leaf which probably is related to Don Simone Camaldolese's documented commission for a gradual and several volumes of an antiphonary for the Olivetans at San Miniato al Monte in Florence. The initial B on this leaf, enclosing the Trinity, is the work of an unknown, probably Sienese illuminator who is called the Master of the Codex Rossiano, after a codex in the Biblioteca Vaticana.

The Trinity is represented in the upper half of the initial B as three youthful bearded figures seated on a throne of red seraphim. Each figure has a cruciform halo and is dressed identically to the others in a blue cloak over a white tunic; the central figure holds an open book in his lap. The lower half of the initial is filled with ten seated angels wearing white, one holding a spray of lilies, another a sceptre and globe.

The initial B begins the introit to the Mass for Trinity Sunday.