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.

• Yunji Li, 2025
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