Resumen de Nel circuito cassinese: Matteo da Terranova, Aloyse da Napoli e Francesco Boccardi
Upon joining the Congregation of St. Justine of Padua � since 1504 known as the Cassinese Congregation � some of the most important cenobies of Southern Italy began to patronize new illustrated choir books. Notable among these, the Monastery of SS. Severino e Sossio in Naples took up this new activity only at the end of the 15th century. Within this context, the latest book of the series � the Psalter Hymnal P (Montecassino, Archivio dell�Abbazia, S. Sev. P) � has received minor critical attention. In the past, its two miniatures have been ascribed jointly to Matteo da Terranova and Aloyse da Napoli. Together, these manuscript painters are documented to have also illuminated the choir books of the abbeys of Monte Cassino (1519-1523) and of San Pietro di Perugia (1526-1529), but the contribution of Aloyse remains uncertain.
After reviewing the documentary sources and the illuminated manuscripts attributed to the two painters, the essay proposes to identify the hand of Aloyse in the painted page with the Trinity in the Psalter Hymnal P, on the basis of a stylistic comparison with the later Gradual HH for Monte Cassino, already ascribed to the same painter. The comparison highlights the artist�s Neapolitan background and exposes a number of stylistic affinities shared by the two books, which indicate two successive phases in Aloyse�s activity. Further indications of the collaboration between Matteo and Aloyse are detected in the decorated initials of the Gradual A1-A2 for the Abbey of Cava dei Tirreni, which offers additional proof of the circulation of manuscripts illuminators among different monasteries of the Cassinese Congregation.
