The two fragments are part of a large group of cuttings, dispersed through many collections, which can be traced back to a series of choirbooks made for the Olivetan monastery of SS Angelo e Niccolò at Villanova Sillaro at Lodi, near Milan. Both cuttings have colourful decoration alongside fragments of musical notation. The first fragment, a bas-de-page, shows two angels holding a wreath containing the armorial devices of the Olivetan Order: three hills topped by a cross and two olive branches.

The second fragment is an initial ‘V’ showing a New Testament scene in which Christ descends from a mountain after the Transfiguration and speaks to the Apostles James, Peter and John. The initial is almost certainly from the antiphon for the Transfiguration: Visionem.

The decoration is by a Lombard miniaturist who signed many of their works with the monogram ‘B.F.’. They have not been convincingly identified with any documented artist, though their work clearly shows the influence of Leonardo da Vinci, who was in Milan during this period.

Literature: Paul Yeats-Edwards, Winchester College (Warden and Fellows’ Library) Medieval Manuscript Collection: Brief History and Catalogue (London, 1978), p. 13.

Provenance: Unknown, at Winchester College by 1978.

Location: Fellows’ Library