935 x 600 mm; ink and pigment on vellum, in Latin, written in angular Spanish gothic liturgical script in black ink on five lines within an area of 700 x 410 mm, with 5 sections of black musical notes on red staves and illuminated borders. Apart from some minor flaking of the paint, all painting and particularly the figures are in good condition.

This is an astonishing Spanish illuminated leaf, both for decoration and scale. The four borders are finely illuminated, the border is black-ruled on the outside and gold framed on the inside, the background is deep blue with gold and green foliage with white, pink and flowers and strawberries and a butterfly. Playing among the foliage fronds are three putti: one holds a club and a shield and is holding a mock-battle with a flightless bird; three large miniatures of angels with multi-coloured wings are shown kneeling on grass holding up the burial cloth of Christ showing the blood of the Five Wounds, each with the inscription "miserere mei." The backgrounds of the miniatures are deep blue with liquid gold penwork. Within the text is a large and elegant initial ‘G’.

The artist has not yet been identified, it is however a skilled artist, with undeniable similarities to the Pierpont Morgan Library leaf Ms M.887.

Provenance: perhaps executed for a member of the Acuña family of Castile (Acuña arms, the Five Wounds of Christ, in border decoration of various leaves); this is one of a group of several leaves known from the same Ms cited in the catalogue entry to the Morgan leaf (which shows the same arms held by Angels), of which copies are housed at the Getty Museum (acquired in 1995), two other leaves in the Morgan Library (including M.887), another leaf is illustrated in the catalogue of Philip Duschnes (Cat. l74 (1965), no.21; the device on the cloth held by angels at the foot of the Duschnes leaf seems to identify the patron as a member of the Acuna family of Castille), and another leaf at the Detroit Public Library.

The leaf in the Pierpont Morgan Library was the gift of William Glazier, M.887 (cf. Ninth Report to the Fellows, 1959, pp.32-4, and Review of Acquisitions, 1949-1968, 1969, p.6): https://www.themorgan.org/manuscript/159529.

Provenance: Sam Fogg, United Kingdom.