Hidden Treasures: Illuminated Manuscripts from Midwestern Collections | Page 8

Folio from the Breviary
of Leonello d’Este with
Initial ‘M’ with St. James
the Greater and Initial ‘D’
with Sts. Peter and Paul,
1441—1448
fig 11: Initial ‘L’ from
a Sistine Chapel Antiphonary with St. Lawrence, 1539, Vincent
Raymond de Lodève,
French, active in
Rome, ca. 1535–1557,
tempera and gold on
parchment, Collection
of Jim Wiggins

Workshop of Guglielmo Giraldi
Italian (Ferrara), documented 1441–1494
Ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
Michigan State University, Kresge Museum of
Art, MSU purchase 67.13
By the fourteenth century, the breviary contained
the entire text of the canonical hours and copies
were made for lay users, as well as for the clergy
and members of religious orders, for use in the
daily recitation of the Divine Office. The deluxe
manuscript to which these two folios belonged
is now recognized as the Breviary of Leonello
d’Este, Duke of Ferrara from 1441–1450. It was
recorded in the Este accounts as having been
illuminated between 1441 and 1448 by some of
the major Ferrarese artists of the day, including
Giorgio d’Alemagna, Guglielmo Giraldi, and
Matteo de’ Pasti.

fig 5
Folio from the Breviary of
Leonello d’Este, 1441—1448
fig 12: One of two
folios from a Book of
Hours with Mass of St.
Gregory and Funeral
Scene with Mourners, ca. 1470, Willem
Vrelant, Netherland