Parchment, Gilding, and God: Gold Leaf and Divine Connection in a Camaldolese Choir Book

IN THE BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE BRAIDENSE , in Milan, there is a sumptuously illuminated choir book made in the early decades of the quattrocento very likely for the Camaldolese monastery of San Mattia di Murano in Venice. This manuscript—hereafter called the Milan Gradual—contains ninety-four folios, of which sixteen have painted historiated initials, and has been attributed to Cristoforo Cortese and his workshop. Cortese was the leading Venetian illuminator of the early fifteenth century and was responsible for numerous commissions for a variety of patrons including both monastic and secular ones. Upon opening the leather-bound cover, one sees a full-page initial A with the image of a soul being