Prayer Book of Michelino da Besozzo Facsimile Edition

The Prayer Book of Michelino da Besozzo is a richly decorated manuscript of Christian prayers produced in Milan around 1430. Even in its fragmentary state, it boasts twenty-two full-page miniatures with decorated borders and forty-seven painted initials on pages that also feature decorated borders. All the miniatures are attributed to Michelino da Besozzo, a renowned Lombard artist who worked in the International Style practiced at the courts of Europe around 1400. The borders are justly famous for delicate floral motifs.

Origin and Structure of the Manuscript

The Prayer Book of Michelino da Besozzo was produced in Milan around 1430 and contains forty-seven prayers organized according to the Temporal and Sanctoral cycles of the liturgical year. The manuscript comprises ninety-five vellum leaves, written in Latin by a single scribe in dark brown ink. The text is carefully arranged in a single column of fifteen lines per page, demonstrating both consistency and precision in its execution.

Artistic Features and Decoration

The codex is distinguished by its remarkable decorative program. It preserves twenty-two full-page miniatures surrounded by intricate floral borders, one historiated initial, forty-seven text pages enriched with borders, and forty-six illuminated initials. Despite these embellishments, the manuscript is incomplete: at least half of the original miniatures and portions of the text are now lost. Nevertheless, what survives conveys the extraordinary refinement of its artistic conception.

Michelino da Besozzo: The Artist

The illuminator of the manuscript is Michelino (de’ Molinari) da Besozzo, a painter celebrated by contemporaries as the “supreme painter” and the “most excellent of all the painters in the world.” This prayer book, which preserves the majority of his extant oeuvre, is widely regarded as his magnum opus. Its refined miniatures embody the elegance and lyrical qualities that made Michelino a defining figure of Lombard painting in the early fifteenth century.

Iconographic Significance

Among its notable images is one of the earliest Western representations of St. Luke the Evangelist painting the Virgin and Child. This motif, which would become increasingly popular throughout the fifteenth century, underscores St. Luke’s role as the patron saint of painters and their guilds. Its inclusion in the manuscript reveals both the innovative iconographic choices of the artist and the devotional resonances of the period.

Provenance and Modern Custody

The codex entered the modern art market in 1949, when it was acquired by the dealer H. P. Kraus from a private Milanese collection. Shortly thereafter it was sold to Martin Bodmer, only to be repurchased by Kraus around 1968. In 1970, the manuscript entered the collections of the Morgan Library & Museum, where it remains a treasured testament to the devotional culture and artistic brilliance of Renaissance Lombardy.