SIMONE CAMALDOLESE, Don

Along with Gherarducci, the other protagonist of the Camaldolese school of the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli is Don Simone, native of Siena, and linked to the artistic traditions of his city. His work has been reconstructed on the basis of the initial “A” at the beginning of the Antiphonary dated 1381 and originally from the monastery of San Pancrazio, attributed to the artist in the explicit of the codex Choir Book 39.

Don Simone is documented as having painted a gradual and several volumes of an antiphonary for the Olivetans at San Miniato al Monte in Florence. It is assumed that this page is a fragment of one of these antiphonaries. The initial A with the Annunciation begins the response for the first nocturn of the first Sunday in Advent. Typically it occurs as the first page (or the first illumination) of the first volume of an antiphonary.

This cutting is from the missing folio of an Antiphonary (Cod. Cor. 16) at the Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence, one of the volumes of an antiphonary written for Santa Maria degli Angeli. The commission to illuminate the antiphonaries from Santa Maria degli Angeli. twelve volumes of which were written between 1385 and 1398, seems at first to have been entrusted to Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci. Don Silvestro completed only three of the twelve volumes.

The second volume of the antiphonary series (Cod. Cor. 16) retains only one of its illuminated initials. Though the style of the initial’s decoration is clearly dependent on Don Silvestro, the technique of its execution is unrelated to his work. It is attributed to an anonymous artist, called the Master of the Ashmolean Predella. The three initials removed from Cod. Cor. 16 were painted by Don Simone Camaldolese.

The initial S is from folio 51 of the antiphonary Cod. Cor. 16. It depicts the half-length figure of St Stephen wearing a white dalmatic and turned three-quarters to the right. The saint holds a red book with green clasps and blue bosses in his right hand and a martyr’s palm in his left. Atop his head rest two large stones, symbols of his martyrdom.

Volume 1 of the two-volume Graduale is distinguished by red decoration of the appliqu�s. It covers the period from Advent through Lent and contains 3 historiated initials and 58 foliate initials. Volume 2 is distinguished by green decoration of the appliqu�s. It covers the period from Easter through the 24th Sunday after Pentecost and contains 4 historiated initials and 46 foliate initials.

The initials in the two volumes of the Gradual display the full range of Don Simone’s decorative repertoire and the brilliant effects he achieved with a palette of high-key contrasting colours and his signature use of black as a ground colour, both in the framework of large historiated initials and, not infrequently, in the centres of smaller foliate initials.

On folio 1r in Volume 1 the Annunciation is depicted in an initial A. The initial begins the introit to the Mass for the first Sunday of Advent.

Volume 1 of the two-volume Gradual is distinguished by red decoration of the appliqu�s. It covers the period from Advent through Lent and contains 3 historiated initials and 58 foliate initials. Volume 2 is distinguished by green decoration of the appliqu�s. It covers the period from Easter through the 24th Sunday after Pentecost and contains 4 historiated initials and 46 foliate initials.

The initials in the two volumes of the Gradual display the full range of Don Simone’s decorative repertoire and the brilliant effects he achieved with a palette of high-key contrasting colours and his signature use of black as a ground colour, both in the framework of large historiated initials and, not infrequently, in the centres of smaller foliate initials.

On folio 1v in Volume 2 the Resurrection is depicted in an initial R. The initial begins the introit to the Mass for Easter Sunday.

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a book production enterprise operated in the convent Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. It involved a number of Camaldolesi illuminators who collaborated with convent scribes, rubricators, authors, and binders. Several manuscripts are known which were executed by the Camaldolesi monks of Santa Maria degli Angeli during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.

The initial on this cutting must have been painted on the verso of the first page of a gradual, since its reverse is blank. The scenes within the initial R are the Resurrection and the Three Marys at the Tomb. As one of only two signed and dated works by Don Simone, The Resurrection is an important document in the reconstruction and critical appraisal of the artist’s work.

The initial C on this cutting encloses the full-length, standing figure of St Lawrence wearing a white dalmatic shaded in blue and lined with green, with amice and apparels of gold with red brocade. It appeared on the verso of a page from a gradual containing the sanctorale (propers of the saints).

This initial is a fragment from a gradual. It is decorated with leaf shapes, around architectural setting with male saint, seated, holding a book, wearing monk’s robes and halo, four kneeling monks in front of him.

The initial E encloses the Adoration of the Magi. The blue initial, lined with yellow and decorated with orange, green, pink, gray, and blue foliage, is set against a tooled gold ground bordered by a ruled yellow-and-pink painted frame. The foliate decoration extends the full height of the page along its left margin and its full width along the top and bottom. A comparison of the scene of the Adoration of the Magi on this page with four other examples of the same subject painted by Don Simone suggests that the design, though not the execution, of the Breslauer illumination must be attributed to Don Simone. The execution is by an unknown artist called after this page the Master of the Breslauer Epiphany.

The masterpiece of the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), The Divine Comedy was the most widely illuminated book of medieval literature, embraced as a subject for manuscript illumination within a decade of the author’s death. Conceived as an epic poem in three parts - Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) - which are in turn subdivided into short sections called cantos, the Comedy is Dante’s personal account of a vision that he had during Holy Week in the year 1300.

The codex in New Haven is one of the finest examples of early Divine Comedy manuscripts to have survived, its remarkable state of preservation allowing full appreciation of the brilliant decoration and regular, harmonious writing. Conforming to an early type of Divine Comedy illustration, the illuminations are confined to the first page of each book, rather than to the whole text, as in later.

On folio 11, within an orange initial N (“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita” [In the middle of the journey of our life]), marking the beginning of the first canto of the Inferno, appears an enthroned figure of Divine Justice. Winged, with a polygonal nimbus framing her head, and wearing a white and pink gown lined with green, she is seated on a lion, bearing a raised sword in her right hand and scales in her left. The brilliant palette, large, simplified forms and schematic rendering of the features are clear indicators of Don Simone’s authorship.

The masterpiece of the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), The Divine Comedy was the most widely illuminated book of medieval literature, embraced as a subject for manuscript illumination within a decade of the author’s death. Conceived as an epic poem in three parts - Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) - which are in turn subdivided into short sections called cantos, the Comedy is Dante’s personal account of a vision that he had during Holy Week in the year 1300.

The codex in New Haven is one of the finest examples of early Divine Comedy manuscripts to have survived, its remarkable state of preservation allowing full appreciation of the brilliant decoration and regular, harmonious writing. Conforming to an early type of Divine Comedy illustration, the illuminations are confined to the first page of each book, rather than to the whole text, as in later.

The second illuminated leaf is folio 27v, on which a large initial P in the middle left of the page, containing a second nimbed female figure with pink wings and an orange robe over a gilt tunic, illustrates the first canto of the Purgatorio (“Per correr migliore acqua alza le vele” [To course over better waters (now) lifts her sails]). Seated on a bank of clouds against a blue background, the figure cradles in her lap a nest in which perches a pelican feeding her young with blood from her own breast; an image known as the Pelican in Her Piety, it was a popular medieval symbol for the sacrifice of Christ and emblematic of Charity.

The masterpiece of the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), The Divine Comedy was the most widely illuminated book of medieval literature, embraced as a subject for manuscript illumination within a decade of the author’s death. Conceived as an epic poem in three parts - Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) - which are in turn subdivided into short sections called cantos, the Comedy is Dante’s personal account of a vision that he had during Holy Week in the year 1300.

The codex in New Haven is one of the finest examples of early Divine Comedy manuscripts to have survived, its remarkable state of preservation allowing full appreciation of the brilliant decoration and regular, harmonious writing. Conforming to an early type of Divine Comedy illustration, the illuminations are confined to the first page of each book, rather than to the whole text, as in later.

The last illuminated page is folio 54r, containing a large letter L to illustrate the beginning of the first canto of the Paradiso (“La gloria di colui che tutto muove” [The glory of him who moves all things]). Within the initial stands a third nimbed figure with green wings, wearing a white cape lined with green and orange and a blue dress, on which is emblazoned a head surrounded by golden rays. She is holding burning flames in both hands, while above her head floats a blue disk studded with stars, among which is visible a small crescent-shaped moon. The identity of this figure is less easily ascertained than in the previous two initials in the codex. It can be identified most probably as Divine Love.