The present fragment has great stylistic similarities with miniatures produced in Bergamo by Jacopo da Balsemo (c.1425-1503). The artist worked primarily in Bergamo, although not a native of that town. There is considerable documentary evidence concerning his life, and in the town's archives he is referred to as 'maestro miniatore' after 1453. He was one of the artists involved in illuminating several choirbooks for the Opera della Misericordia Maggiore in Bergamo (Biblioteca Civica MS Corali A-D and Ant. 1-12), one of which he signed, and all the decorative details of the present initial are clearly closely related to those. Cf. Cortesi & Mandel, Jacopo da Balsemo, Bergamo, 1972.

PROVENANCE: Juan and Felix Bernasconi, from the collection of Carlo Prayer, sale in our rooms 24 June 1987, lot 228