Six detached leaves from the Gradual of the Carthusian Monastery Santo Spirito near Lucca
A detached leaf from a choir gradual, a large liturgical songbook for a Carthusian monastery near Lucca, made in Italy in the fourteenth century by the illuminator Niccolò di Giacomo da Bologna for monks singing the Mass. The pictures are gold-ground initials with painted scenes inside blue and red letterforms, showing vivid ultramarine, gold leaf, and scrolling acanthus-like foliage a designer could borrow for decorative capitals and framed panels.
