Fragmentarium

Franciscan Antiphonal – Fragment

Parchment · 8 leaves (consecutive) · 1490 – 1510 CE · Venice · 568 x 420 mm

F-k1rd

New York City, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Plimpton 040H

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Language
Latin

Reconstruction Summary

Plimpton MS 040H is an assemblage of eight large-format parchment leaves from a late medieval (or early Renaissance) Venetian Franciscan antiphonary, part of a six-volume choirbook set illuminated by the workshop of Benedetto Bordon for the small Franciscan convent of San Nicolò della Lattuga. The fragments preserve liturgical chants for the Common of Apostles, Common of Martyrs, and offices for a Confessor Bishop, each written in formal Gothic script with square notation on four-line red staves. Rich decoration—including historiated initials of Christ sending the apostles, a turbaned prophet, and a bishop, as well as an exceptional lower marginal medallion of Saint Francis with the donor Fra Pietro da Lucignano—embeds the manuscript within the highly self-conscious visual culture of late Quattrocento Franciscan spirituality. The pigments and stylistic features (malachite greens, vermilion reds, atmospheric landscapes, volumetric drapery) align the leaves with refined Italian Renaissance idiom, while the iconographic pairing of Christ commissioning the apostles with Francis blessing a kneeling Pietro articulates a distinctly Franciscan theology of apostolic succession. Originally dispersed among the Plimpton family after 1950, the decorated leaves were reunited and donated to Columbia University in 1995. Together, these fragments preserve the multisensory devotional world—visual, musical, and communal—of a Venetian Franciscan house at the turn of the late fifteen (or early sixteenth) century.

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

Scholarly description(s)

Yunji Li, 2026
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Online Since
01/25/2026

Franciscan Antiphonal

Parchment · 8 leaves (consecutive) · 1490 – 1510 CE · Venice · 568 x 420 mm

F-k1rd

New York City, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Plimpton 040H

How to quote

Franciscan Antiphonal (Fragment), New York City, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Plimpton 040H, f. 1–8 (https://fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-k1rd)

IIIF Manifest URL
https://fragmentarium.ms/metadata/iiif/F-k1rd/manifest.json

Permanent link
https://fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-k1rd

Online Since
01/25/2026

Franciscan Antiphonal – Fragment

Parchment · 8 leaves (consecutive) · 1490 – 1510 CE · Venice · 568 x 420 mm

F-k1rd

New York City, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Plimpton 040H

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Contact E-Mail
rbml@library.columbia.edu

Online Since
01/25/2026

Curated Tags: Location: Veneto Location: Venice Location: late medieval Location: early Renaissance Location: Franciscan Location: liturgical Location: Saint Francis

Benedetto Bordone 1460-1531

Role: Illuminator
Authority Source: VIAF
Biographical data:

Italy

Role: Origin
Authority Source: VIAF

Franciscan Antiphonal

F-k1rd

New York City, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Plimpton 040H

Overview

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Description

Franciscan Antiphonal, New York City, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Plimpton 040H