This large illuminated initial ‘A’, perhaps cut from a choir book, shows the Duke of Milan Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444-1476) kneeling in prayer to God, presumably asking for victory in the battle taking place in the middle distance. The coats of arms of the Dukes of Milan are enclosed in the wreaths in the borders. Delicately painted and decorated with gold leaf, this cutting is a stunning example of Italian manuscript illumination in the fifteenth century.

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