[Mexican illuminated missal on vellum, titled:] Libro Primero de las Missas de la Virgen Nuestra Señora: Missas Votibas de Santos, Fiestas Moviles. Para el uso del Convento y Hospital de Nuestra Señora de Bethlem de Mexico by ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - Mexican School, 18th century - 1702

Mexico, 1702. Large folio. (20 7/8 x 15 inches). Manuscript in Latin and Spanish on 140 vellum leaves ([2], 1-134, [4]). Text in two different hands: 1. leaves numbered 1-134, plus 3 unnumbered pages of tables at the end; 2. five-stave musical notation in black only on pastedowns, 3 unnumbered pages at the beginning, leaf 134 verso, and 6 unnumbered pages at the end. Illumination: 56 illuminated initials in colors and gold (6 x 6 inches and smaller). Contemporary Mexican olive green morocco over wooden boards, covers elaborately tooled in gilt with a wide border built up from four fillets, a pomegranate and diamond roll, and a stylized foliage roll, each of the inner corners of the border tooled with a drawer handle tool from which radiate five stylized fan-leaves each enclosing a stylized flower-spray, beyond these a foliage tool repeated three times, at the center of the inner panel is a circular design which re-uses the tools used at the corners: a central circle formed by two drawer handle tools, from which radiates a larger circle formed from the fan-leaf tool repeated sixteen times, outside this the foliage tool repeated eight times, the flat spine divided into five compartments by gilt fillets, the four lower compartments each with a large single stylized flower-spray tool, iron clasps, small expert repairs to head and foot of spine, some scuffing to extremities, gilt edges Provenance: Bethlemite Brothers of Mexico City An exceptional Mexican illuminated missal and a fine example of Baroque Mexican book arts. The fifty-six gorgeously illuminated initials of this missal, made by the Bethlemite brothers of Mexico City, depict New World flora and fauna, including a wild turkey. Their style melds the traditional Renaissance book arts to an Andalusian decorative aesthetic, with a strong mannerist influence. The palate used for the illuminations consists of liquid gold, lavender, red, pink, black, white, yellow, and purple. Many of the initials are adorned with miniatures of animals, birds, flowers, and insects, and the remaining are presented on elaborate fields of geometric patterns. Besides the turkey, animals portrayed include foxes, parrots, a peacock, squirrels, a monkey, herons, finches, crested birds, dogs, storks, deer, ducks, an owl, and butterflies, to name a sampling. The flowers and foliage include a wide variety of stylized and occasionally exotic flowers. The initials that are presented on geometric patterned fields represent two styles: traditional European of the sort found in Renaissance manuscripts, and clearly Hispano-Moresque influenced, of a type more usually associated with Southern Spain. The contents of the missal include: The Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo; Masses of the Virgin; Masses from the Sanctoral and Temporal; with a Hymn to the Virgin on the front pastedown and flyleaf, and the Asperges on the endleaf and rear pastedown. The manuscript was produced during a second golden age for Mexico City. During the 18th-century it was the largest and richest city in the New World. After a century of decline, Mexico's silver production was again robust thanks to new technologies and other sometimes cut-throat business practices; additionally, much of Spain's trade with the Spice Islands, China, and the rest of Asia passed through Mexico City. This brought additional wealth to its merchants, a fact that was reflected in the opulence of the life-style. This opulence meant that the city was able to support artists and artisans of the highest caliber in many fields, including manuscript illumination. From the beginning in the 16th century onwards, Mexico had adopted a Spanish tradition of illuminated manuscript works on vellum that had two branches to it: a secular and religious. The secular arm was supported by the constant demand for beautifully-produced 'patents of nobility' that were so much a part of every conquistador's quest for respectability. On the religious side, the Church benefited from the newly-created wealth via substantial bequests and donations, some of which were used to pay for the famously-beautiful choir books of the city's cathedral. The demand for these manuscripts was met by both European and locally-trained artists and artisans: by 1557 there was actually a formal organization for painters in Mexico, called the 'Ordenzas de Pintores y Doradores', which provided for the establishment of workshops with apprentices. The embellishment of religious texts with miniatures and illumination continued throughout the colonial period, the style changing from the Mannerism of the Lagarto family-illuminated manuscripts of the 16th and early 17th centuries, to the Baroque and Rococo of the later 17th century as exemplified by the artist, Juan Correa, to the formal Neo-Classical of the period after 1720. The present manuscript dates from the transitional period from Rococo to Neo-Classical and, with 57 individual illuminated initials, is an exquisite example of the art of the era. The title, index and occasional lines of introductory summary are written in a roman hand in black or red with occasional colored decoration initials. The main text is written in very large modified rounded gothic bookhand in black and red, twelve lines per page, within a red double-ruled border. The text consists of Kyrie, Gloria and Credo (ff. 1-7); Masses of the Virgin (ff. 7v-60); Masses from the Sanctoral and Temporal (ff. 60v-134). Hymn to the Virgin (front pastedown and end leaf); Asperges (rear pastedown and end leaf). This is the first volume of what would have been a monumental series of possibly four to six volumes. No other volumes from the series have been traced, and it is likely either that they have not survived or that the series was never completed. The artist of the miniatures is not known but the manuscript created for the use of the Convent and Hospital of Our Lady of Bethlehem in Mexico City, and according to the colophon, completed by "a servant of Mary" in 1702. A further name is added at the foot of the page of music facing the first page of the index: " El P[adre]. San Geronimo, [lo] escribio." The Bethlemites were the first religious order created in the New World, founded by Pedro de San José de Betancur, a native of the Canary Islands, who arrived in Guatemala in 1650 and founded the first hospital for convalescents in the world. The Bethlemites went on to become one of the New World's most important orders of the hospitalers. Their importance may be judged from the fact that by the middle of the 18th century, the convent and hospital of Nuestra Senora de Belen in Mexico City had attracted such generous benefactions that splendid new buildings were commissioned from the influential architect, Lorenzo Rodriguez. María Concepción Amerlinck de Corsi El Ex Convento Hospitalario de Betlemitas (México: Banco de México, 1996).