New Saints in Frankfurt: Saint Lawrence and Saint Lucia Join the Coldiradi Group
While browsing the newly digitized manuscript holdings of the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany, I was surprised to encounter two full illuminated leaves that unmistakably belong to the long dispersed antiphonal illuminated by the artist Baldassare Coldiradi, who was active in Cremona around 1480–1490. Each leaf, depicting Saint Lawrence (L.M.69) and Saint Lucia (L.M.68) respectively, was exhibited for the first time in Text and Spirit: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Museum Collection and their Digitization (2025). They represent important new additions to this group of surviving miniatures and now remarkably fully intact leaves.
Both of the historiated initials remain preserved intact in their original folios and are possibly the only leaves from the lost antiphonal still intact in this state. Thesaints are rendered with Coldiradi’s hallmark traits: elegant costumes, these deep blue backgrounds often with swirling white floral patterns, sharp linear profiles, and rich floral and gold framing. The style matches that of other known miniatures from this manuscripts, which are housed in the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Oxford’s Bodleian Library, the University of Indiana (?) and additional example in private collections surfaced through Sotheby’s and Christie’s. My own leaf, depicting Saint Mary Magdalene, like belongs to this group and is key point of comparison in establishing Coldiradi’s distinctive hand.
Significantly, the Frankfurt leaves had not been previously identified in the Coldiradi corpus. They entered the museum in 1921 as part of the Linel Collection, assembled by Michael (1830–1892) and Albert Linel (1833–1916), prominent Frankfurt collectors of illuminated manuscripts, book art, and ornament prints. Initially housed in the Museum für Kunstgewerbe (now Museum Angewandte Kunst), the Linel Collection became the foundation of the museum’s book arts department. For decades, these two Coldiradi leaves served as model sheets for artists, especially calligraphers and typographers. Their reemergence, through digitization and scholarly attention, underscores the value of institutional transparency and open-access digital archives in advancing manuscript studies. Thank you!
The reconstruction of this manuscript, likely commissioned for the Augustinian convent of Santa Monica in Cremona, as proposed by Pia Palladino, has steadily advanced over the last three decades. Scholars such as Anna Melograni and Palladino have helped attribute the group to Coldiradi, tracing the fragments through libraries, auctions, and private collections. Notably, art historian Beatrice Alai has recently attributed both the Saint Lawrence and Saint Lucia miniatures in Frankfurt to Baldassare Coldiradi. The addition of Saint Lawrence and Saint Lucia in Frankfurt not only expands the known cycle of saints in this antiphonal but also suggests a broader and more ambitious liturgical program than previously understood. These discoveries remind us that important fragments still reside, quietly, in museum drawers awaiting rediscovery.
