Colonna Missal

Various

John Rylands Library

circa 1532, 1539, circa 1555

The Colonna Missal was made for the use of the Sistine Chapel, Rome, and is a monument of Italian Renaissance art and book production. This volume (number two in the set) was separated in the 19th century from the other six, which were purchased by Alexander, Lord Lindsay, and are now in the collection of the John Rylands University Library. The Missal is one of the most important liturgical manuscripts of the 16th century, both artistically and in terms of its original liturgical context, and some of its decoration is exactly contemporary with Michelangelo's fresco of the Last Judgment over the High Altar. It is a truly remarkable piece of High Renaissance art, intended to stand comparison with Michelangelo's masterpiece, to be fit for a Pope.

• Artists Include:
• Appollonio de' Bonfratelli

• Medium: illuminated manuscript on vellum
• Dimensions: 37 x 26cm
• Art Fund Grant: £47188 ( Total: £188,750)
• ArtFunded in: 2011
• Vendor: Christie's

Provenance

Commissioned by Cardinal Pompeo di Girolamo Colonna; by descent to ecclesiastical members of the Colonna family; presumed that the seventh volume had become separated from the rest of the set before 1868; Bernard Quaritch, 1896; George Jay Gould at the Anderson Galleries, New York, 1925; Gabriel Wells; Sir Alfred Chester Beatty at Sotheby's, 1932; Bernard Quaritch; Estelle Doheny; Christie's, 1987; Private collection.

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