PACINO DI BONAGUIDA
(active 1302-1340 in Florence)

Laudario of the Compagnia di Sant'Agnese

1320s
Tempera and gold on parchment, 195 x 230 mm
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

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 cutting from a leaf depicts the Martyrdom of Sts Peter and Paul.