The Annunciation to the Virgin, historiated initial on a leaf from a Choirbook, in Latin [Italy (perhaps Perugia), c.1320-30]

single leaf, 485x335mm, vellum, with an initial 'M' for the first antiphon at Vespers 'Missus est Gabriel Angelus ...' for the feast of the Annunciation, with three-sided marginal foliate extensions, seven lines of text and music on four-line red staves, rastrum 28mm, old foliation '157' in outer margin of recto, vellum cockled and stained, splits and small holes repaired, considerable losses to the gold leaf, illumination rubbed, cropped, in fair condition   

Characteristic of the style of this initial are figures with green-tinged skin tones and almond shaped eyes, set in front of an elaborately patterned background. Such sophisticated backdrops are distinctive for the Perugian school of manuscript illumination in the early decades of the 14th century, strongly influenced by the painter Meo da Siena who worked in Perugia between 1319 and 1333 (F. Todini, La pittura umbra dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento, 1989). One of the exponents of this school is the MAESTRO DEI CORALI DI SAN LORENZO who was named after his work in an Antiphonary in six parts made for the Cathedral of Perugia dedicated to San Lorenzo (Biblioteca Capitolare, MSS 7, 9, 13, 14, 17, 45).