NEWS: A Fifth New Leo X cutting, by Peter Kidd.
I have written about a dismembered Missal of Leo X several times, most recently here. Browsing images of cuttings in Parisian collections I came across this initial “P”, in the Musée des arts décoratifs, shown above.
The online description is vague. Unlike those previously found, the cutting consists not just of an initial, but also a border. And although the style and colouring of the illumination does not seem to me to be identical to the previously found ones, the border confirms that this is definitively from a Leo X book: it includes at the bottom the familiar letters “L.X.P.M.” for “Leo X Pontifex Maximus”, as shown in my first blog post on the subject.
This is also the first cutting to show any evidence of music (a four-line red stave is visible to the right of the initial “P”, with a musical note on the top line). I suspect it comes from the Prefaces which usually precede the Canon in missals, and begin “Per omnia …” as in this example, which also has a priest doing something with the chalice.
So far, therefore, we have located:
– two cuttings at Vassar College
– one in the Wildenstein Collection, Paris
– one sold by Maggs c.1970
– one sold by Christie’s in 2016
– the present one, in Paris.
Doubtless more will come to light …