The Festive Missal of Cardinal de' Rossi, Bishop of Pavia, richly illuminated and with a signed miniature by Guarnerio Berretta

Illuminated manuscript on vellum. One full-page miniature signed by Guarnerio Berretta, two smaller miniatures in initials, one of them with a richly ornated border. Folio (350 x 245 mm). Pavia, c. 1550-60 or around 1564. Original calf binding with gilt fillet border and erased coat of arms of Rossi in the form of a rising lion with crown, crowned by a bishop's mitre on the front and a cardinal's hat on the back.

Until now, the only known work of the illuminator Guarnerio Berretta was his work on choir books for the Charterhouse of Pavia around 1575/77. In this festive missal, he emerges much earlier as a mannerist illuminator of distinction with a brilliant full-page signed miniature (the only one known thus) of the Crucifixion of Christ. The manuscript was produced either around 1550/60 or around 1564 for a Cardinal de’ Rossi, Bishop of Pavia, and is excellently preserved in the old binding, complete and with rich secondary illumination.

This Missal has been described in great detail in our catalogue 90 “Wunderkammer”, no. 5, available in our Online Shop.

If you would like to receive further information on this work, please contact us.