Annunciation, March 25

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Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial M with the Annunciation 

Bologna, Italy, 1314

Script: Rotunda

Parchment with ink, paint, and gold

Notation: Square

Illuminator (Artist): Neri da Rimini

Scribe: Bonfantino di Bologna

 

Initial M with the Annunciation

This initial begins the first response for the first nocturn of Matins for the feast of the Annunciation (March 25), “Missus est Gabriel Angelus ad Mariam Virginem …” (The Angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary). This initial, and those on its sister leaves (Lewis E M 68:7b and 9), is by Neri da Rimini, a Riminese illuminator whose activity can be documented from 1300 to 1338. This leaf can be dated more precisely to 1314 based on an inscription on Lewis E M 68:7b, in which the scribe Bonfantino of Bologna signed and dated his work.

Free Library of Philadelphia Lewis E M 68:7a