![Initial S[alve sancta parens] from a Gradual: Madonna and Child, by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, c. 1370–74](/thumbs/cma/1924.1012/1924.1012_web.jpg)
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Initial S[alve sancta parens] from a Gradual: Madonna and Child
Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (Italian, 1339–1399)
c. 1370–74
- Medium
- ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
- Classification
- Manuscript
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 16 x 13 cm (6 5/16 x 5 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- Italy, Florence
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Medieval Art
- Credit line
- Gift from J. H. Wade
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Along with several other excised leaves and miniatures that survive in various libraries and museums, this decorated initial S was part of a magnificent gradual produced in the scriptorium of the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. The Madonna and Child was a standard image for the Saturday votive Mass to the Virgin. This initial originally introduced the text: Salve sancta parens (“Hail, Holy Mother”).
