Object details
Accession number
U19w30
Creators
Full title
Leaves from a Missal of Pope Clement VII
Creation Date
1523-1527
Language
Latin
Publication Place
Rome
Binding Description
Dark blue goatskin with purple silk moiré doublures and fly-leaves framed by gilt-tooled, circular and oval compartments of red goatskin
Description
1 Vol. (5 leaves, 29-31 lines) ; vellum ; ill : 43.5 cm
Provenance
Made for use by Pope Clement VII (Giulio de' Medici, 1478-1534) in the Sistine Chapel, 1523-1527. (as probably part of manuscript A.III.14, until 1728)
Probably removed from the Vatican Library during the French occupation of Rome in 1798.
Probably in an anonymous English collection, about 1850-1900. (rebound by Roger de Coverly, London)
Collection of the scholar and critic Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908), Cambridge, Massachusetts by 27 May 1904.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Charles Eliot Norton in May or June 1904 for $800.
Marks
Marked (f1r, left center border): papal arms of Pope Clement VII
Inscribed (f1r, on illustration of altar cloth): "CLEMEN. VII P[ontifex] M[aximus]"
Dimensions
43.5 x 31.5 cm (17 1/8 x 12 3/8 in.)
Display Media
Ink, colors and gold on vellum
Web Commentary
This page comes from a Christian service book called a missal, one of the illuminated manuscripts commissioned by Pope Clement VII to celebrate Mass in the Sistine Chapel. The Latin text gives instructions to the priest. For instance, the opening line of this one – inscribed in red at the top of the page – reminds the celebrant to incline his hands as he begins this part of the service. Colors and symbols help to guide him through it. Ceremonial directions appear in red and small “+” symbols remind him when to make the sign of the cross.
This book went missing from the Vatican over two centuries ago, probably with the rest of the Sistine Chapel manuscripts. In 1798, looters likely removed it from the Vatican during the French occupation of Rome. Like many of the others, this one was cut into pieces and sold on the art market. Little is known of its journey from Rome to Boston, save for the fact that it turns up in London in the late nineteenth century. In 1904, Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased this fragment from her friend, the Harvard professor Charles Eliot Norton.
Permanent Gallery Location
Tapestry Room
Bibliography
Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Manuscripts and Bookbindings from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston, 1922), pp. 17-18, 59.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 165.
Seymour de Ricci and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. I (New York, 1935), p. 931, no. 5.
Hilliard Goldfarb. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Companion Guide and History (Boston, 1995), p. 91.
Elena De Laurentiis and Emalia Anna Talamo. The Lost Manuscripts from the Sistine Chapel: An Epic Journey from Rome to Toledo. Exh. cat. (Dallas: Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, 2010), pp. 23-28, 320, 324.
Anne-Marie Eze. "Italian Illuminated Manuscripts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum." Rivista di Storia della Miniatura 16 (2012), pp. 13, 82, 84, 86-87, 91, 93, fig. 7. ill. (as the Master of the Missal of Cardinal Bernardino de Carvajal, dated 1523-1527)
University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts, no. 42812, accessed 4 November 2016.
Anne-Marie Eze in Jeffery F. Hamburger et al. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Newton: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2016), pp. 101-103, 241, 273, 276, no. 78, ill.
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