This sumptuous illuminated cutting, executed in Augsburg, Germany between 1485 and 1499, was likely from the Franciscan Women’s Convent of Maria Stern. Once adorning the pages of a grand Latin choirbook, it appears to have been destined for liturgical use. 

Enclosed within the luxuriant scrolls of a monumental historiated initial C appear three hallowed figures: Saint Francis of Assisi, the ascetic founder of the Franciscan Order and emblem of radical humility; Saint Clare of Assisi, his “little plant,” devoted spiritual counterpart, and the first abbess of the Poor Clares; and Saint Mary Magdalene, the penitent visionary and apostola apostolorum. Rendered with exquisite detail against a field of tooled gold, the miniature evokes an atmosphere of contemplative sanctity and communal devotion. 

On the back, remnants of Gothic script and square notation are partially effaced but still discernible: “Veniet ecce…[po]testate magna,” a chant from Matins of the First Sunday of Advent. This strongly suggests that the manuscript was part of an antiphonary.

Now preserved within the collections of the Free Library of Philadelphia, this fragment embodies the refined artistry and devotional intensity characteristic of late fifteenth-century German manuscript illumination.