Holiday Manuscripts at The Met

Hebrew and Christian manuscript illuminations by Italian Renaissance artist Mariano del Buono (1433/4-1504) are on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In anticipation of its annual Winter celebration, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has placed on view the Mahzor, a Hebrew prayerbook from The Jewish Theological Seminary's Library, and a folio (page) from a Christian choir book owned by The Met, two wondrous works of manuscript illumination attributed to Italian 15th-century artist Mariano del Buono (1433/4-1504). These masterpieces are on display in the museum's first-floor Medieval Treasury from September 4 to January 6, 2008.

Mariano del Buono was in charge of one of Renaissance Florence's most prolific ateliers (studios). The elaborately decorated liturgical volumes his workshop produced suited the needs of both his Jewish and Christian patrons, attesting to the dialogue that existed among members of different religions in parts of 15th-century Italy. Three blessings in the morning prayers of the Mahzor irrefutably indicate that the diminutive Hebrew prayerbook, intended for personal use, was produced for a woman, her identity as yet undetermined. The Met's Latin choir book illumination, two feet in length, was probably part of a funerary text used by choristers from the monastic order of Vallombrosans at central Florence's Church of Santa Trinita ("Holy Trinity"), famous for its fresco paintings by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494).