# Initial S from a Gradual: Saint Augustine

- By: Master of the Murano Gradual (Italian)
- Date: c. 1420
- Medium: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
- Classification: Manuscript
- Dimensions: Sheet: 16.8 x 14.9 cm (6 5/8 x 5 7/8 in.)
- Culture: Italy, Venice
- Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1954.257)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1954.257/1954.257_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This initial belongs to a large group of excised miniatures of saints once part of a gradual used in a Venetian Camaldolese monastery, probably San Michele on the island of Murano. The artist has shown a fondness here for unusual decorative features such as the band of pseudo-Arabic writing along the sleeve and the feathery-white scrolling leaves resembling shells.