Yates Thompson MS 30

Contents:

ff. 1r-12v: Calendar;

ff. 14r-58v: Hours of the Virgin;

ff. 61r-63r: Mass of the Virgin;

ff. 67r-74r: Seven Penitential Psalms;

ff. 74r-80v: Litany;

ff. 83r-109v: Office of the Dead;

ff. 112r-114v: Office of the Holy Cross;

ff. 118r-121v: Gradual Psalms.

There are blank folios between the sections.

Decoration:

12 calendar roundels with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 1-12). 12 miniatures, accompanied by small decorated or inhabited initials, and full borders for the double-pages, with all'antica elements, including emblems, putti, gemstones, masks, and foliate decoration, in colours and gold (ff. 20v, 27v, 30v [miniature of half size at the end of the text], 31r, 34r, 37r, 40r, 45r, 60v, 66v, 82v, 117v). 6 large historiated initials, with full borders with all'antica elements, including emblems, putti, gemstones, masks, and foliate decoration, in colours and gold (ff. 14r, 61r, 67r, 83r, 112r, 118r). All text pages with partial foliate borders, with putti, birds, etc, and small central miniatures, in colours and gold. Small initials in gold on coloured grounds.

The decoration is attributed to:

Attavante degli Attavanti (ff. 14, 20v); Giovanni Boccardi (known as Boccardino il Vecchio) (ff. 1-12, 27v, 30v, 31, 34, 44v, 66v, 67, 82v, 83, 112, 117v, 118); Mariano del Buono (f. 45); Stefano Lunetti (ff. 37, 39v, 40, 60v, 61) (see Garzelli, Miniatura fiorentina, 1985).

The subjects of the images in the calendar roundels are:

f. 1r: January: a man seated indoor, warming his hands before a fire, with a table and bed in the background and a landscape visible through a window;

f. 2r: February: a man with a pitchfork lifting hay into a cart;

f. 3r: March: a man with a ladder, pruning a vine, and a woman collecting wood;

f. 4r: April: a young man and woman seated beside a stream playing a lute and picking flowers;

f. 5r: May: a man on horseback about to release a hawk, with a servant beside him;

f. 6r: June: a man reaping corn and a woman tying the sheaves;

f. 7r: July: two men threshing, with their master watching;

f. 8r: August: coopers making barrels;

f. 9r: September: a woman crushing grapes with her feet, while a man brings more in a basket;

f. 10r: October: A man sowing wheat, with two oxen pulling a plough;

f. 11r: November: a fowler with ducks at the gate of a town;

f. 12r: December: a butcher flaying a pig, with a boy inflating a bladder.

The subjects of the images in miniatures and initials are:

f. 14r: The Nativity;

f. 20v: The Visitation: Mary and Elizabeth, with a view of the church of S. Giovannino and the Medici Palace in the background;

f. 27v: The Adoration of the Shepherds;

f. 30v: The Virgin and Child enthroned, with Francesco Salvati and his wife kneeling at the sides;

f. 31r: An angel appears to three shepherds;

f. 33v: Elisius with nude maidens and youths with palms;

f. 34r: The Adoration of the Magi;

f. 37: The Circumcision;

f. 39v: The Judgement of Solomon, Saints Cosmas and Damian, patrons of the Medici;

f. 40r: The Massacre of the Innocents;

f. 44v: Nephtali, seated;

f. 45r: The Flight into Egypt;

f. 60v: The Nativity of the Virgin;

f. 67r: David enthroned and, beneath, holding a sword and Goliath's head;

f. 82v: The Raising of Lazarus;

f. 83r: A landscape with the winged figure of Death;

f. 112r: The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John;

f. 117v: The Presentation of the Virgin, with Mary ascending the steps to the Temple and Joachim and Anna below and a garden with a chapel in the background;

f. 118r: The Virgin and Child with Saints.