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(c) 2014 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Antiphonal
(c) 2014 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
(c) 2014 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Antiphonal

illuminator (active Naples, late 16th century - early 17th century)
scribe (active Nola, late 16th century - early 17th century)
Dateabout 1600-1615
Place MadeItaly, Europe
MediumInk on parchment
Dimensions64 x 44 cm (25 3/16 x 17 5/16 in.)
ClassificationsBooks
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberU30w3
eMuseum ID730700
EmbARK ObjectID12888
TMS Source ID1938
Last Updated11/23/24
Description1 Vol. (154 leaves) : parchment : ill ; 64 x 44 cm (folio)
Status
Not on view
Web Commentary
Antiphonaries contain the sung portions of the Divine Office, a cycle of daily devotions performed by members of religious orders. They are large in format so that they could be shared by a choir. This volume contains the Proper of Saints, the text and music for the celebration of the major saints’ feast days which are highlighted by illuminated borders and initials. For the feast of St. Nicholas of Bari (6 December)--who is the origin of Santa Claus--the saint is dressed as a bishop and holds a miter and three golden balls representing the dowries he paid for three poor virgins, enabling them to marry.

This book was given to Isabella Gardner by her brother-in-law George A. Gardner who claimed that it had been rescued from a shipwreck of the Bay of Naples. Water damage (see the edges of the cockled leaves) and the recent discovery that it was made for the Dominican convent of the Madonna dell’Arco at Sant’Anastasia, near Naples, suggest that there might be some truth to this legend.

BibliographyNotes
Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Manuscripts and Bookbindings from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston, 1922), pp. 22-25, 77. (as with original binding, dated 1733)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 269. (as written in Spain by Venturinus Bayans, 1733)
Seymour De Ricci and W. J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, Vol. 1 (New York, 1935), p. 931, no. 9.
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 15 (12 Dec. 1965), p. 2.
Dennis Crowley and Rollin van N. Hadley. “Notes on an Italian Choir Book.” Fenway Court (1970), pp. 39-44, figs. 1-3.
Anne-Marie Eze. "Italian Illuminated Manuscripts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston." Rivista di storia della miniatura 16 (2012), pp. 82, 87-91, 93-94, figs. 8-9. (as workshop of Giovan Battista; as for the Dominican convent of Santa Maria dell’Arco at Sant’Anastasia)
Anne-Marie Eze in Jeffrey 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: Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2016), pp. 273, 282-83, no. 227, ill.
Elizabeth Reluga, "A Choir Book Comes to Life," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 7 December 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/choir-book-comes-life

MarksNotes
In relief (front cover, center): reproduction of the fresco of the Madonna dell'Arco
In relief (front cover, upper and lower right corners): coat of arms of the Order of Preachers
Inscribed in ink (front pastedown): "scripsit anno dni 1733"
Inscribed in ink (f.11v): "Videns"
Inscribed in ink (f.125/115): "R. respicie officiu(m) exaltationis eiusde(m). Ant. Ad Mag. respice pag. immediati post officiu(m) S. Antonini. Ordi(n)is. nostri."
Inscribed (f.45/35): "Ad Memorias Adventus adire timere per invenies in libro adventus pag. 41"
Inscribed (f.65/55): "Memoria de Cathedra si servi tu es pastor per invenies infrapasol" [same hand as f.45/35]
Inscribed (f.161/151): "Anoe qe desunt sunt in fol. 153" [referring to lower numbering sequence]

ProvenanceNotes
Commissioned for the Dominican convent of Santa Maria dell’Arco at Sant’Anastasia between 1601 and 1614.
Probably removed from the convent of Santa Maria dell'Arco in 1808 or 1866.
Possibly purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner's brother-in-law George A. Gardner (1829-1916) in Naples, 1887.
Gift from George A. Gardner to Isabella Stewart Gardner, by 1903.