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A fine vellum leaf from a large-format antiphonal, containing part of the Office of First Vespers for the Nativity of Christ. Written in a formal Italian Gothic rotunda, with square musical notation on a four-line red staff. The principal initial R is illuminated in vermilion on an ultramarine ground, adorned with a central botanical design.
The recto includes the rubric “In Nativitate Domini nostri Iesu Christi ad Vesperas,” preceded by the first antiphon “Nolite timere: ecce enim evangelizo vobis” (Luke 2:10), sung at the beginning of Christmas Vespers. The verso continues with two further antiphons: “Magnificatus est rex pacificus super omnes reges universæ terræ” and “Completi sunt dies Mariæ ut pareret filium suum primogenitum”, texts firmly associated with the Christmas liturgy in the Roman rite.
The palette, script, and musical notation are consistent with northern Italian choir books of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, possibly from a Lombard or Venetian workshop. The preservation of the Christmas Vespers incipit, with its recognizable sequence of chants, makes this a particularly desirable survival from a festive liturgical manuscript.
