PACINO DI BONAGUIDA
(active 1302-1340 in Florence)

Laudario of the Compagnia di Sant'Agnese

1320s
Tempera and gold on parchment, 420 x 299 mm
British Library, London

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.

The large rectangular miniature depicts St Agnes Enthroned and Scenes from Her legend. Three additional figurative scenes appear in oculi along the lower margin of the leaf. The leaf belonged to the hymn for St Agnes whose feast is celebrated on January 21.