Christ Appearing to the Disciples, very large historiated initial on a leaf from the Temporale of a Gradual, in Latin [Italy, Lombardy, c.1475-80]

single leaf, 595x440mm, vellum, with an initial ‘A’, 165x170mm, for the chant ‘Aqua sapientie potavit eos’ for the Mass on Easter Tuesday, 5 lines of text and music on four-line red staves, 420x300mm, rastrum c.45mm, original red ink foliation at lower right of text, 'xiiij', on verso a penwork initial for the start of Psalm 104, some rubbing of the gold, and some darkening in the margins of the leaf

Although similar to Ascension iconography, the initial depicts the moment when Jesus appeared to his disciples after his Resurrection, and ‘they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit’. The scroll reads 'Pax vobis. Ego sum. Quid timidi estis' (Peace be with you; it is I. Why are you afraid?; Luke 24:36, Matthew 8:26) based on the Gospel readings for Easter Tuesday: it is one of the very unusual characteristics of the parent volume that the initials depict the Gospel readings.

A dozen leaves and cuttings from the same manuscript are reproduced and discussed by G. Freuler, Italian Miniatures from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries, 2013, II, no.82; the present initial is extremely similar to his fig.82.8. The volume was broken-up by 8-9 November 1928, when leaves were offered for sale by Hoepli in Zurich; most recently, a cutting was Christie's, 23 June 1993, lot 13. The original foliation in roman numerals and later re-foliation in Arabic numerals (visible in Freuler figs.82.2, 82.4, 82.7), show that the Temporale had more than 227 leaves, was re-bound in two volumes, and all the previously-known leaves came from the second volume, containing the Sundays after Pentecost, which would have begun at fol.cxi.