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Facsimile Description Print    Online Since: 07/18/2025

Gradual – Fragment

Parchment · 1 leaf · 1525 – 1550 CE · Poland · 194 x 287 mm

F-y0h5

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis E M 1:20
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Century
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Liturgica
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Summary

This illuminated gradual leaf, produced ca. 1525–1550 in Nakło nad Notecią, Poland, features a historiated initial D with angels adoring the Christ Child, rendered in ochres, iron reds, and greens against a radiantly celestial ground. The Latin texts—drawn from Psalms 23, 109, and 2, and Isaiah 40—depart from the standard Roman order for Christmas Midnight Mass, suggesting regional variation. Now in the Free Library of Philadelphia (John Frederick Lewis Collection), the fragment exemplifies the liturgical and artistic distinctiveness of pre-Tridentine Central Europe.

Summary Author
Yunji Li, New York University (United States)
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