The Missal of Cardinal Angelo Acciaiuoli

Instructions to artists

Artists' Techniques

The Missal preserves sixteen instructions for the artists written in Italian on pages with historiated initials (fols. 12v, 16r, 16v, 71v, 75v, 81v, 86v, 90r, 225v, 226v, 228r, 231r, 234r, 244r, 249v, 252v).

Thirteen were penned in ink by the same hand beside initials painted by different artists. The other three were written in faint metal point in the upper margins of pages with initials by the same artist (fols. 244r, 249v, 252v). Erasures beside other initials suggest that there may have been more instructions originally. The instructions demonstrate the meticulous planning of the Missal’s production, down to visual details of liturgical significance. They also reveal that the artists were accomplished professionals who needed only a prompt as to the subject matter, but were entrusted to choose their preferred compositions and design their own images.

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The small dark green leaves in the borders were painted with vergaut, a mixture of indigo blue, identified by the minimum at 660 nm in the FORS spectrum (above) with an arsenic sulphide yellow, likely orpiment, as suggested by the arsenic (As) and sulphur (S) identified by XRF (below).
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Detail of the pink robe under magnification (25x), modelled with dark pink brushstrokes over a light pink base layer. The FORS spectrum (below) shows the typical features of an insect-based dye, likely insect-based, as well as absorption bands at 1726, 1760, 2307 and 2352 nm due to the egg yolk binder.
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The pink decorations in the border were obtained with an organic dye, possibly mixed with gypsum as suggested by narrowing of the deep absorption band at 1943 nm in the FORS spectrum. No features attributed to egg yolk are identified, revealing that a different paint binder was used for this portion of the decoration.

Historiated initial E with the Adoration of the Magi (Mass for Epiphany)

The instruction to the right of the initial reads ‘la storia di magi’.

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