Decorating with Antique Art: Hand-painted Antiphonal Music Sheets

Since 2003 I have been traveling to Italy to hand source Italian Antiques and decorative objects. An advantage to hand selecting beautiful furniture and decorative items in Italy (I know, it's a tough job) is learning a bit about history and how things were once done or made. Someone came into the store the other day and was looking at the following Italian illuminated manuscripts. I enjoyed visiting and discussing a bit of the background information of the artwork when she suggested that I tell the story on my website or in a newsletter.

Here’s what we were discussing....

Three 17th Century Italian Antique Illuminated Manuscripts on Parchment

Antique antiphonal music manuscripts are interesting to music lovers or anyone who likes and can appreciate the history behind them. Better yet, they’re beautiful.

Music manuscripts were handwritten by scribes and illustrated on parchment. They were time consuming to make and the materials used were expensive, therefore, these were considered art. Manuscripts were only found in churches or in private chapels of the wealthy.

Each framed antique manuscript is an individual page of what would have been a large bound missal for a Catholic mass. 

Tempera paints were used for the musical notations and beautiful illustrations. 

Each manuscript page is floated within its frame to highlight the texture of the parchment, which was the manuscript writing surface during the medieval times and prior to the use of paper.

17th Century Music Manuscript-Large

Antique Sacred Music On Parchment

17th Century Sacred Music On Parchment

These hand-painted Antiphonal music sheets are indeed unique and presented like this in a simple frame, they can be appreciated as wonderful and decorative pieces of antique artwork.