[LIGHTING]. [GRADUEL]. Initial A historiated. King David, nimbed and crowned, God the Father in heaven with angels Leaf from a gradual. Tempera, gouache and gold leaf on parchment; four-line staves, square musical notation. Italy, Florence, second half of the 15th century, ca. 1466-1469. Attributable to Bartolomeo di Domenico di Guido (1430-1521) [Garzelli] (formerly attributed to Francesco d'Antonio del Chierico [Kanter]). Leaf size: 410 x 570 mm; initial size: 170 x 190 mm Good general condition, some stains in the margins, some pigment gaps in the tracing of the ornate letter. Monumental, this folio contains a very large historiated initial, introducing the beginning of a large gradual. The historiated initial A illustrates the introit of the mass for the first Sunday of Advent: "Ad te levavi animan meam, Deus meus..." (Psalm 24:1-2). This folio was part of the collection of Léonce Rosenberg, and was then given by the gallery owners Kalebdjian Frères to Robert Lehmann who kept it in his collection of medieval illuminated folios. The attribution of this folio was debated. De Ricci (1937) and Kanter (1994) identified the painter as Francesco d'Antonio del Chierico (1433-1484), one of the most important Florentine illuminators of the second half of the quattrocento. However, Garzelli suggested that it was the hand of another Florentine illuminator who was close to Francesco d'Antonio del Chierico, namely his contemporary Bartolomeo di Domenico di Guido, documented among others as illuminator of the Badia Fiesolana (Augustinian foundation in Fiesole) between 1466 and 1468. Another leaf painted by Bartolomeo di Domenico di Guido is kept at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (call number: 96.32.14), also from a gradual (Entry of Jesus to Jerusalem). Provenance: 1. Medici family (probably Piero de Medici (his reign, 1464-1469)), with coat of arms inscribed in a diamond-cut ring, painted in the lower margin of the folio (recto). Garzelli (1985) suggests that this leaflet comes from a manuscript probably commissioned by the Medici for the Franciscans of the Convent of San Bonaventura al Bosco ai Frati. Another folio with the same coat of arms inscribed in a ring with a diamond is known, as is another folio featuring St. Francis, both also in the Leonce Rosenberg collection (see below; De Ricci, 1913, nos. 83 and 84). A date after 1466 for this folio is suggested by the inclusion in the Medici coat of arms of a bezant with three fleurs-de-lis: permission to include these fleurs-de-lis in the Medici coat of arms was granted by Louis XI to Piero de Medici in 1466 (see Palladino, 2003, p. 164). Piero de Medici died in 1469, thus providing a terminus ante quem for the making of this folio (and the gradual from which it is taken, perhaps Florence, Museo di San Marco, Corale 581-587, 611?). 2. Léonce Rosenberg (1879-1947), French dealer and publisher, son of Alexandre Rosenberg and brother of Paul Rosenberg (Paris, 1913; see De Ricci, 1913, p. 28, no. 82, pl. XI; De Ricci, 1937, p. 1713, C 17-18). Léonce Rosenberg opened a first gallery of medieval art in his mansion at 19, rue de la Baume in Paris, and later became a collector and dealer of cubist and abstract art. 3. Robert Lehman Collection (1891-1969), banker, important collector and philanthropist. The Robert Lehman Collection - comprising nearly 3,000 works of art and one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in the United States - was presented to the Metropolitan Museum by the Robert Lehman Foundation in 1969, following Robert Lehman's death. Some of the artworks were sold separately in 2004. Leaflet published in Palladino, 2003, no. 82. Purchased from Kalebdjian Frères, Paris (12 rue de la Paix), 1924. 4. Private collection. Bibliography: De Ricci, S. Catalogue d'une collection de miniatures gothiques et persanes appartenant à Léonce Rosenberg, Paris, 1913, p. 28, no. 82, pl. XI. - De Ricci, S. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, New York, 1937, p. 1713, C17-C18. - Garzelli, A. Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento, 1440-1525, Florence, 1985, p. 168. - Kanter, L. (ed.). Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450, New York Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, fig. 11 - Palladino, Pia. Treasures of a Lost Art. Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, New Haven and London, 2003, cat. 82, pp. 162-163.