Bibliothecae.it (Dec 2023)
«Questa sie la resone de li libri che se fano del choro di Sancta Maria del Popolo»: Prolegomena to the study of the choir books of Santa Maria del Popolo, gleanings from the documentary sources and a look at two (unpublished) illuminated graduals by the Master of the Barbo Missal
Abstract
Entrusted in 1472 by Sixtus IV della Rovere to the Observant Augustinian Congregation of Lombardy, the Roman church of Santa Maria del Popolo and the adjoining convent underwent a veritable renaissance from that time onwards, which involved not only the architectural structure of the complex, but – among other things – also its book equipment. After outlining a historical framework of the convent at the end of the 15th century and focusing on the liturgical-musical apparatus of the Augustinians of Piazza del Popolo, the contribution presents some news of interest for the study of the choir library taken from the surviving documentary sources, the current composition of the collection now in the General Augustinian Archive and some initial reflections on two graduals whose decoration is proposed to be attributed to the Master of the Barbo Missal. Finally, there is a brief report on an illuminated cutting from the choir library of Sant’Agostino in Siena, preserved in the Central Library of the Augustinian Province of Italy in Viterbo and included, together with the choir books from the Florentine convent of Santo Spirito and those from Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, in a cataloguing campaign promoted by the Augustinian Province of Italy and supported by the National Commission “Indici e Cataloghi delle Biblioteche italiane” and the Vatican Apostolic Library.
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