Sienese book of hours illuminated by Bernardino Cignoni

Book of Hours, use of Rome In Latin, manuscript on vellum Italy, Siena, c. 1475–149

An apparently previously unrecorded Book of Hours attributed to Bernardino Cignoni, the Sienese illuminator  whose documented work includes choir books for Siena Cathedral. Daniele Guernelli has identified his hand in the present manuscript. Its rich gold grounds, saturated blues, greens and magentas, and distinctive figural penwork give this small devotional book much of the visual splendour associated with the city’s larger liturgical manuscripts.

Dimensions
140 x 95mm

Description

Illuminated manuscript on parchment, 182 leaves, complete, with a paper flyleaf at each end. Written in an Italian lettera rotunda in black ink, 12 lines to a page, with rubrics in red, blue and gold. Gold and blue initials throughout, accompanied by exceptionally lively marginal penwork incorporating flowers, faces, figures and animals. Twelve pages have historiated initials and painted borders; five of these mark major divisions of the text with full borders on gold grounds.

Binding
In 19th century Italian black morocco, gilt decorated, with chiselled silver cornerpieces, catches and clasps, red silk endleaves and gilt edges.

Condition
The upper margins are slightly cropped, with occasional minor losses to the paint and cracking of the gold; otherwise well preserved,with clean margins.

Illuminations
The Office of the Virgin begins with the Virgin and Child, the infant holding a pear, accompanied in the margins by the Archangel Gabriel and God the Father (f. 13r). Other principal openings depict Christ as the Man of Sorrows (f. 89r), the Entombment (f. 93r), the Crucifixion (f. 131r) and David in penitence (f. 155r). The subsidiary Hours are introduced by smaller historiated initials and borders containing portraits of saints. Birds and other animals enliven the decoration throughout. Particularly intriguing is a figure drawn in gold in the lower margin of f. 46v: a veiled woman holding a rosary and kneeling before the Instruments of the Passion. She may evoke a Sienese mantellata, perhaps even Catherine of Siena, although her identity remains uncertain.

Text
The manuscript contains a Calendar; the Office of the Virgin, use of Rome; two offices of the Holy Cross; the Office of the Dead; and the Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany. The litany names Saints Francis and Clare. A reference in the Office of the Dead to “the brothers of our congregation” suggests use within a male religious community, though the intended first owner has not been identified.

Provenance
1. An 18th century armorial stamp of Joa. Anto. Victorius Firmanus, I.V.D., on the flyleaves
2. The library of the Earl of Mountnorris, with a printed description dated 1817 pasted inside the front cover.
3. Subsequently in a European private collection.

We thank Daniele Guernellifor the attribution to Bernardino Cignoni.