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Dispersed today among a number of collections are nearly two dozen leaves and cuttings from a single laudario, or book of hymns to be sung in Italian by the members of a lay confraternity. This illustrated hymnal was one of the most ambitious and lavish manuscripts created in Florence in the first half of the fourteenth century. All but five of the surviving illuminations from the laudario were painted by Pacino di Bonaguida, the most prolific manuscript painter in Florence in that period. The remaining leaves are by the Master of the Dominican Effigies.
This leaf belongs to the hymn for the feast of All Saints (November 1). The opening words of the hymn, "Facciam lauda at tutti [i Sancti]," (Let us praise all the saints), were first written in lightly over the block then rendered in gold leaf.
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