[ILLUMINATION] [CHOIR BOOK]. Historiated initial V. Saint John the Baptist holding a phylactery From a liturgical manuscript (antiphonary ? gradual ?). Tempera, gouache and gold leaf on parchment. Italy, Lombardy (Milan ?) or Tuscany (Siena ?), circa 1450-1475. Dimensions : 75 x 62 mm Good general condition but burnished gold cracked and some paint chips at the level of the lettering. This very elegant historiated initial recalls the works of Lombard and Milanese painters, in the line of Tomasino da Vimercate (or "Maestro del Libro d'ore di Modena", active in Milan from circa 1390 to 1415) and his followers or the Maestro delle Vitae imperatorum active in Milan. This initial was certainly made later and there are also affinities with the circle of Venturino di Andrea dei Mercati da Milano or sometimes called Venturino Mercati, active in Milan but also associated with Siena and Tuscany (see for example the historiated initials preserved in Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum (MS. 199.3-199.9) or his contributions to the choir books of the Cathedral of Chiusi, not far from Siena, as well as to the choir books of the Opera del Duomo in Siena).